


A Long Way

by MamaButts



Series: A Long Way [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/F, Implied Pearlmethyst, Like a grab-bag of awesome, Possibly a little bit of everything in here in the future, Spanking, implied pearlnet, implied polygems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2018-04-16 15:53:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4631184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaButts/pseuds/MamaButts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a collection of drabbles or inserted scenes written for my main fic, A Long Way From Home. Some may be more "canon" than others, some may be sfw, others nsfw. I'm just going to throw everything in this junk pile eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Long Way From Solace

**Author's Note:**

> This scene takes place after CH2 of A Long Way From Home.

Steven thought nothing of it when the van rumbled around the bend of the beach and the Temple came into sight. It looked exactly as it had when he’d left it behind a week ago. 

He had been apprehensive to leave the Gems alone for so long and under such dangerous conditions, too, but it was precisely those dangerous conditions that made it imperative for him to leave Beach City entirely. It was probably the same dangerous conditions that had Greg checking his rearview mirror every twenty seconds or so to glance at the hand-shaped ship in the sky as it descended. Steven had watched out the back window to see if he could spot it leaving, because that would mean the Gems chased off the threat and he could go home, but he fell asleep after a few hours instead.

After the first half hour, they were probably too far away to have seen anything anyway.

It was disappointing to Steven, because he really would have liked to be there to watch the Gems fight and win. There would have been all sorts of neat things to watch—like Garnet punching something so hard it broke in half, or Pearl twirling her spear so fast it hummed, or Amethyst headbutting something into the ground. Maybe since it had been such a dangerous threat, they had fused! Steven would really have liked to see Alexandrite again. He always wondered what her weapon was.

If they had formed Alexandrite again without him, Steven was going to be a little upset, but perhaps they’d feel bad enough to treat him to a play-by-play rendition of the battle, complete with props, so he didn’t have to feel like he’d missed anything.

The van rolled to a stop in front of the Temple. Greg handed Steven his backpack and went around to the back to collect some other things. Steven didn’t even hang back to walk up to the Temple with him; he bolted off, breath puffing from his chest with every hastened stride. He couldn’t wait, he couldn’t wait.

He threw open the screen door so hard it slammed against the wall. “Guys! I’m back!” He waved his arms in greeting. His backpack swung around and hit the wall, too, thoroughly announcing his presence loud enough to make Amethyst and Garnet look up.

“I knew you’d defeat that ship. They never even stood a chance—and look, you didn’t even need me there! I bet you hit them like, like—” He flung his backpack again and made explosion noises with his mouth. “And then, I bet Amethyst got all in there like _pow!_ And—” More explosive sounds, animated for punctuation with his wildly flailing hands. “I wish I got to see it. I wish I...”

Steven trailed off. Something wasn’t quite right. Garnet sat on the couch, her hands clenched into fists. She was bent and her shoulders were rigid in a way that revealed that behind her glasses, she was rattled. Her seams were loosened and fraying. He’d never see her so—

And Amethyst was on the floor, half-draped over the coffee table as if she’d slipped off the couch at one point and didn’t even care to get back up. Her hair stuck to her cheeks where she had been crying—she still was—and she looked back at Steven with something frenetic and broken bouncing around behind her eyes like she had trapped part of herself there and wouldn’t let it out again.

“Guys?” The backpack fell to the floor with a dull thump. Something had gone wrong. Steven took two more steps inside, wanting to know. Maybe if he knew what was wrong, he could help them fix it. They were always fixing things together.

It did not take long for him to notice what was missing.  “...where’s Pearl?”

Void, caged eyes met his. A curtain of dread fell over the room and Steven got the crushing feeling that this was the moment Garnet and Amethyst had been dreading for a week now. This, right here. They had probably tried to prepare for it, brace themselves for it, and yet when he stood there in the doorway, they couldn’t seem to take the plunge.

Garnet broke first. “She’s gone,” she said. 

That seemed to shake Amethyst back to life. A hysterical noise tore through her tears so viciously she had to grab at her chest with both hands and she was angry. It was the only thing she had left because she’d already spent every other piece of her she could and anger was just the dried up remnants left caked to her heart. “She _left._ She just let them take her. She let them—”

“Amethyst.”

“I don’t understand,” Steven said. “She left? S-she went back to space?” What had he done wrong? Pearl could sometimes do things that didn’t make a lot of sense to him. Even though Steven knew she missed space, he never thought she would leave them all to get back to it. He began to wonder, with a sense of impending panic, what he could have done or said differently to have made her want to stay. Surely Steven could have done something, even if it meant not laughing at Amethyst’s jokes as much or working harder at learning how to use his gem. Maybe he should have told her how much he appreciated her more. Had he never told her how much she meant?

She left without even saying goodbye.

There was a warm hand on his shoulder and he looked up to meet all three of Garnet’s eyes. He hadn’t even seen her stand up, but she was here now and she crouched down on one knee to be level with him. The way she looked at him—the way she almost _couldn’t_ look at him—meant she didn’t have the power to lie to him when she said, “They took her away.” She was trying so hard to look at him. “We lost, Steven.”

Steven waited for it to make sense. He looked from Garnet to Amethyst, then to the warp pad as if expecting to see Pearl warp in any second now. Not because that was what he expected to happen, but because it was what he _wanted_ to happen. He was still fighting down a lump in his throat when he heard flip-flops slapping on the steps up to the front deck. It wasn’t long before Greg pushed open the screen door.

“You know what, I’m just going to order us all a pizza for—” Greg stopped in the doorway, a suitcase tucked under his arm. “What happened here?”

“Dad,” Steven cried, “they took Pearl.” The tears bracketing his cheeks were already racing their way down to his chin in lethargic, jolting tracts.

The suitcase under Greg’s arm dropped. “ _What?_ Who did?”

It was almost immediately that Garnet stepped in. She was managing; that’s what she did, after all. She managed and controlled what she could because there was no other option for her. It was either she do this or come apart. “Greg, I need to speak to you outside.”

“But—” Steven began his protest as Garnet and Amethyst moved past him. He didn’t want to be left behind, not so soon. He still had so many unanswered questions. There was still so much that was wrong and he didn’t want to have to be alone as he sorted through all of it, not even for one second.

“Steven, we need to speak with your father alone.” Garnet said, “We’ll just be outside.”

And that was how they left him, just standing there in the middle of the house. He watched as their dark shapes moved betwixt the slots in the window blinds. Their voices were muffled. This always happened. Always. It was like they were trying to hide things from him again, but Steven didn’t want to be treated like a child anymore. Not when it came to losing Pearl. He deserved to know, he needed to know.

Stubborn and determined not to be left behind, Steven shuffled up against the wall next to the front door. With his ear pressed to it, he could catch some of their conversation, even hushed as it was. They were trying so hard to keep secrets from him.

“—so we know they might try to contact us again with more,” he could hear Garnet say.

There was a silence and then Greg spoke again, sounding like he wanted to gag. “That’s sick. That’s sick.”

“She knew it would happen. It’s what Homeworld _does_ to pearls like—”

“We can’t tell Steven that. He’s just a kid, Garnet.”

“I should have gone instead.” Amethyst interrupted, her voice cracking. “I’m a Kindergarten gem; they wouldn’t have done that to me. At least they wouldn’t have—”

Then Garnet was murmuring something low and rushed and Steven couldn’t quite make it out. He knew all-too-well the sound of Amethyst crying through rage-gritted teeth, though.

“What happens now?” Greg asked.

“We wait for the next one. We can’t let Steven know. If he knows, he’ll want to be there when it happens and he’ll want to see it. I don’t want to have to be the one to tell him why he can’t.”

“I can take him over to the car wash if it happens again to keep him away from the TV. I’ll keep him all day if I have to.”

The deck creaked as Garnet took a step back towards the door. “Thank you, Greg.” 

Steven underestimated the time it would take for them to move back inside. He didn’t realize that it wouldn’t take Garnet more than a second to cross the deck, so he didn’t even have time to lift his ear from the wall before she almost hit him with the screen door. 

A week ago, Steven might have felt guilty at eavesdropping, but today was different. There was grief-stricken defiance in his gaze as he stared up at Garnet with the same intensity with which she stared down at him. He could have yelled one hundred things at her, just as she could have said a hundred things back. But neither of them did. An impasse gaped between them until, brick by brick, they began to build across it.

“How much of that did you hear?” She asked.

Steven chose his words carefully. “They’re hurting her, aren’t they?”

It was not really a question. He knew. And so Garnet nodded slowly. “Yes. They are.”

“We have to go save her.”

And of course he wanted to do just that. Steven was still a child and his noble optimism carried him far. But Garnet shook her head and it was the most difficult thing she’d done yet. “Not this time, Steven.”

Over the next few days, Garnet did what she could to help Steven understand what happened. She would answer his questions if she could, but after a while, Steven stopped asking about it. He could tell it hurt to bring it up. 

Amethyst couldn’t even talk about it. When she wasn’t hiding, she was reckless and livid to the degree where Steven didn’t even want to be in the same room with her. It wasn’t because she scared him, because it wasn’t violence she exuded. It was pain, cooked down to its most primal concentration. She radiated it, sloughing noxious volumes and it was exhausting for Steven to be around for more than a few minutes. She drained him so quickly that there was no comfort left in him to give her.

They gave him one of Pearl’s swords and a pretty glass reliquary that chimed sweet musical notes whenever he blew on it gently. It had belonged to her, too. This was supposed to help him, they said. But it didn’t help.

By the end of the week, Steven knew several things. He knew that, from the moment the ship touched down on the beach, the battle hadn’t even lasted an hour. It had not been grand or showy; it had been a tragic brawl marked by desperation and lost causes. He knew that Peridot had come to take something from the Kindergarten. Something secret, something that made both Garnet and Amethyst uncomfortable. He knew they sent back a video broadcast about Pearl, but he wasn’t allowed to see it. He didn’t want to see it, either. And finally, he knew this: when he asked Garnet why Pearl let them take her away, she told him, “I know she did it because she loves you.”

Somehow knowing that just made it harder.


	2. A Long Way From Punishment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This insert takes place toward the end of CH 6--I'm sure you can figure out when. And it is quite NSFW for themes like attempted non-con and spanking and a very, very angry Jasper. Contains Jaspidot and Lapidot.

Peridot’s room was empty. The control room was empty. Even Lapis’s small quarters were empty. Everywhere Jasper stalked and surveyed, Peridot was nowhere to be found. She searched so long she began to suspect that Peridot was running circles around her, always dancing just out of her line of sight. But if that was the case, Jasper was certain she would have heard her clunking along like the useless automaton she was.

She finally found Peridot huddled beneath a nest of tubing in the core chamber. Hiding. What a little coward.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find you?” Jasper asked as she crouched to be eye-level with her trembling quarry. “Did you think you were going to spend the entire last leg of this mission down here?” And then she reached in past the grating and wires and rummaged around until she found an arm. She wrenched Peridot from her hiding spot, her previous resentment only fueled into rage by how long she’d spent trying to find her on this miserable ship. That Peridot had the _gall_ to try and hide from her...

Peridot shrieked and twisted in her grasp.

But she was weak, and Jasper dragged her along with ease. “Come on.”

“ _No, no, no, no!_ ” Peridot fought, her fingers twitching in sporadic panic as she struggled to gain enough cognitive control to coordinate even a single one. It looked as though she was ready to saw her own arm off at the shoulder to rid herself of Jasper’s grip. “ _I had to!_ ”

“You wanted to. You’re a pathetic sycophant and nothing more.”

“ _I had to, I had to!_ ” She chanted as she was toted along. At one point, her legs stopped trying to keep up with the grueling pace, resulting in Jasper dragging Peridot down the ship’s corridors much like a child would drag a doll. Her heels scraped the floors with an irreverent, dissonant screech.

Even Lapis poked her head around a doorway to see what was going on. “Are you—?”

“Stay out of this,” Jasper barked.

And that was the end of Lapis. She ducked back into the dark and did not show herself again, not even when Peridot cried her name a half dozen times, pleading, begging for her help. _Good_ , Jasper thought. The brat knew what was good for her.

By the time they finally reached Peridot’s room, she was sobbing openly. She tried one last time to get away in a mad clutter of limbs, only to have Jasper toss her bodily to the ground. She landed in a crumpled pile and immediately tried to scramble back up.

Jasper was there to pin her down with a foot to her back before she could get very far. “Tell me what you sent her.”

“The whole thing, I sent her the whole thing,” Peridot blurted out between the sobs.

The whole broadcast was currently meandering on radio waves through the void of space, primed for Yellow Diamond’s main command center. Every little second of it. Even the parts where Jasper had lost control of herself, had demonstrated the dire weakness that lay at her very core. Every little groan of pleasure and rake of her fingers over Pearl’s skin. Jasper was reeling, almost disbelieving. “You sent Yellow Diamond the whole broadcast? Are you _cracked?_ ”

“I’m sorry! I—I was scared and I didn’t have time and so I just sent it. I sent it, I thought you were going to come after me so I sent it, I’m sorry,” she slurred.

“Do you _want_ to see me crushed? Is that it?”

“No!” Peridot was quick to shake her head. “No, no! I would never—” Her words were rendered into nothing more than a helpless gurgle as Jasper grabbed her by the throat. She dragged Peridot up, lifting her by the neck as if she weighed nothing, as if she _were_ nothing.

Peridot’s eyes strained in her head as Jasper tightened her fingers and marveled at how she could almost make a closed fist around such a tiny, breakable throat. “I should force your hand right now,” she said. “I should vaporize your body right here, right now and force you to regenerate. I’ll get to watch you cry when you’ll have to chop your arms and legs off again. I bet you cried when you did it the first time. Did you cry?”

She was crying right now. Tears leaked over Jasper’s fingers and beaded between the creases that formed in Peridot’s skin where she held her too tight. Ah, but it would be a terrible waste to vaporize her.

Mercy was granted with cruel leisure as Jasper opened her fist until she could feel Peridot’s gasped breath and the bob of her throat move haltingly beneath her palm. She still regarded Jasper with wide, terrified eyes that glistened in the low light.

“You put me in a very dangerous position,” Jasper spoke slowly, deliberately. “This could cost me my rank.”

“I had no choice. If I didn’t—s-she would have seen me dead if she found out I didn’t report it. Please, Jasper. I didn’t w-want to hurt you.” The way Peridot’s eyes went milky and soft revealed one of her greatest weaknesses. That she regarded Jasper with anything akin to devotion was a mistake. Jasper felt no such dedication for Peridot in return, but she took advantage of it. And often.

“You want to make it up to me?” Jasper inquired, intrigued. She tilted her head.

Peridot’s smile wavered through her tears. “I want to make it up to you.”

Good enough. Jasper threw Peridot away from her. She landed face-down on the bed in the cold, sticky remnants of Pearl and Jasper’s coupling. Immediately she shrieked about it. It was, admittedly, one of the more annoying sounds Jasper had to deal with on a regular basis. But she knew how to stop it. Jasper pushed Peridot’s head right back down into the thick of it and watched with satisfaction as she gurgled, open-mouthed into the slick and then finally got wise and snapped her jaw shut.

There. Quiet.

“So you want to make it up to me,” Jasper drawled. She kept her hand on the back of Peridot’s head, holding her down as the other went in search of the safety locks located on the rim of her prosthetics. She knew exactly where they were. Popped the first one off below the elbow easily. “Alright.”

Peridot let out a high, thin whine. She always hated when Jasper took her prosthetics, but was too used to it by now to fight. The other arm came off.  At this point, she was more or less helpless and so Jasper released her head in favor of concentrating on removing her legs as well.

As soon as she was free, she lifted her head. “Jasper,” she gasped, “You know Yellow Diamond won’t kill you. She _likes_ you. Really likes you. I f-figured at the worst you might just get a lecture and—not the legs! _Please_ , not the legs—”

Jasper brought her hand down across the rise of Peridot’s backside. She jerked, whimpered, and then fell silent.

“You were out for your own protection and your own promotion, so don’t pretend like you put any thought behind your actions. And you have no idea what this is going to do to that pearl.”

Peridot twisted to look over her shoulder. Her expression was contorted. “The pearl? What does she have to do with any of this?”

“The pearl,” Jasper said. “I have no idea what they’ll do to her now that she’s incubating.”

Again, Peridot’s eyes narrowed. “What do you care about the pearl for?”

There was a frustrated grunt from Jasper as she popped off Peridot’s last prosthetic. “I care because I’ve been putting a lot of _my_ time and energy into finding a way to keep her alive. If you haven’t noticed.”

For a long moment, Peridot stared up at her with lips parted and eyes glistening, as if soaking something in. All the little gears and levers and hydraulic pumps that Jasper liked to imagine lived up there in Peridot’s skull were churning away with diligence. And then, all of a sudden, a revelation hit. A flicker of devastation sank into her expression and she said, so very softly, “You like her.”

Jasper recoiled. “What?”

But Peridot insisted, her teeth gritting as something that looked very much like rage overcame her. “You like her. You _like_ her!”

And then Jasper was being pelted with kicks and blows, whatever Peridot could reach despite her now limited range. She hit hard, chanting her maddening revelation the whole time as her voice erupted and cracked in hysteria, “ _You like her, you like her. You like her more than me!_ ”

It was all Jasper could do but simply pin her down, actually surprised that Peridot managed a few good jabs to her face. She had never _seen_ Peridot like—

“ _I’m going to kill her, I’m going to fuck her and kill her and then shove whatever ff_ —” she strained up against Jasper’s grasp, “— _powered bits of her that are left in your face. Fff_ —”

These were dangerous things to say to a dangerous gem. And yet there Peridot went, relying on nonexistent feelings of devotion to keep her safe.

It only took a second. Jasper flipped Peridot over onto her stomach and tore claws down her back in a sharp, fluid movement. It flayed her clothing to mere ribbons and if it caught some flesh on its way down, well, that was just another thing Peridot would be left to cry about later. Jasper grabbed the remnants of fabric and ripped whatever was left of it clean off.

Peridot seemed to comprehend the gravity of her words only just now. “ _Oh, no_ ,” she scrabbled at the mattress without gaining any purchase whatsoever. “ _Oh, please, please, no_.”

Too little, too late. Jasper pressed a knee down upon the small of Peridot’s back and grabbed two palmfuls of her ass. It was the fleshiest part of her, nothing like the sleek, manufactured sheet metal of her limbs. If she spread her open far enough, Jasper was rewarded with a nice view of her cunt. “If I wanted to hear someone’s opinion,” she said, “I would have asked a gem my own damned rank.” And then she brought her hand down hard, smacking the vulnerable flesh of Peridot’s backside.

“ _No, no, no,_ ” Peridot wept.

It was melodious. Peridot couldn’t control the noises she made and the timbre of her cries went every which way to compose some dissonant little tune. Jasper hummed along, so very pleased with how responsive Peridot was already. She had only just begun, really.

The next blow sounded like the snap of a whip. Skin meeting skin.

“You’re _hurting_ me!”

“Good.” The wretched complaints fed Jasper’s vindictive streak. She ground her knee into Peridot’s back even harder to keep her pinned as she let loose another volley of slaps, each one punctuated and rewarded with another new and fascinating sound.

“ _You never fucked me like you fucked her,_ ” Peridot wailed, her blaring cry unhindered by shame or self-awareness. “ _You like her more than me!_ ”

“Maybe I do,” Jasper said. “Maybe I like how she doesn’t betray me to my superiors in hopes of covering her own ass.” Another smack.

The sounds Peridot made were ugly, thick, and grating. Her face was contorted and marbled with tears and old, iron-flecked cum. Jasper hoped she could taste it on her lips and that it would serve as a sour reminder of exactly who she had crossed.

And then, somewhere in-between the peals of misery, Peridot threw her head back and something like a manic little chuckle slithered in betwixt all the bawling.

Jasper frowned, not sure if she’d heard her correctly because, not long after, Peridot was back to shrieking like she was being murdered.

“ _I’m sorry, I’m sorry!_ ”

Peridot was a strange creature and so Jasper dismissed what she’d heard as nothing more than one of her many odd tics and idiosyncrasies. How was Jasper supposed to understand the madness that churned inside her head? She took it to be nothing more than Peridot’s psychosis eating her alive from the inside and fumigating nonsense in its death throes.

Probably had a hairline fracture somewhere on her gem that needed examination.

Jasper raised her hand, leaned all her weight into her knee, and hit Peridot again.

By the time Peridot was choking on her own sobs, Jasper had abused her ass into a vibrant, dark green hue. Lacerations framed the sorry picture where Jasper’s claws got careless. When Peridot bled, it was a sluggish, grey color. A trickle meandered down her haunches. She was shaking. Overwhelmed.

And then she did it again. The skittering notes of a chuckle raced between Peridot’s tortured cries, like a vein of gold ore jutting up through a slab of rock. That new and hysterical sound was suddenly the most genuine part of this whole experience.

This time, Jasper reached down and grabbed a fistful of Peridot’s hair to yank her head back up. Nearly snapped her head clean off her neck with the sheer force of it. “Are you enjoying this?” she demanded, incredulous.

But there Peridot was, a wide, open-mouthed grin splitting her face. She looked the part of a wreck—tears and cum and a high, unsightly flush to her cheeks—and yet she was anything but. A conniving little tongue snuck out to run over her lips, drawing a thick dollop of old release right into her mouth. Jasper could see it rolling in the back of her throat as she laughed. “No.” She didn’t even attempt to sound innocent or convincing in the least.

Jasper threw her head down and watched in mute disgust as Peridot continued to giggle into the mattress. Infuriating. The one time she found the means and reason to wring a healthy sense of discipline into Peridot, she enjoyed the whole damn thing. Jasper had always known there was something a little odd about her, as there were not many gems out there that willingly removed their own limbs and Jasper was aware of some of her more unorthodox sexual proclivities (had even indulged in some of them). But she thought Peridot would have at least a little _shame_.

There was no shame to be had here, apparently. It seemed Peridot decided that Jasper was taking too long to get back to her assault, so she raised her ass, wiggled her hips, and began to cry anew. Brazen. Churlish.

At this point, Jasper knew them to be crocodile tears. And she got the terrible feeling that, no matter how hard or ruthlessly she smacked Peridot or taunted her, she would not be able get the real tears to come out. This way wouldn’t work. It was doing nothing but egging the brat on by sating her peculiar appetite. Jasper had to try something different. What suitable punishment was there for a fiend like Peridot—starved for attention and craving the terrible promiscuities that normally lived well behind the vault of the mind?

Jasper lifted her knee from the small of Peridot’s back and was not at all surprised when she didn’t even attempt to clamber up. Not surprised, either, to see the gleaming ribbon of sap that lined the seam of her cunt and divulged the vast arousal that lay even deeper within. Little terror had been getting exactly what she wanted the whole time. So Jasper took her by the hips and, with no more care than she would have afforded a sack of rocks, she dragged Peridot off the bed and onto the floor. She landed sprawled on her back, dazed and still gagging on her laughter. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to retch.

“Well,” Jasper patronized as she stood over her, “I hope Yellow Diamond gives you that advancement. I hope it was worth it.”

“Jasper...”

It was disingenuous attempts at instilling pity that grated at Jasper’s nerves the most. On the heel of her foot, she turned and grasped the frame of the bed. She hauled it towards her; it scraped against the floor with an agonizing sound.

That finally got Peridot’s attention. She stopped laughing at least and propped herself up onto her elbows. “What are you d-doing?”

Jasper lifted the bed off the ground and it was heavy enough that she had to bend at the knees to hold it. Good. Perfect.

Peridot was not quite so pleased. There was a generous amount of alarm in her eyes at the sight of an entire bed being lifted over her body. She couldn’t scrabble back fast enough. “ _What are you doing?_ ”

In Jasper’s defense, she could have thrown the bed or dropped it on top of Peridot’s body. It would have likely been enough to cause her to vaporize, in fact, if she hit her hard enough. But Jasper was not out to destroy on this day. Only punish. And so she turned the bed on its side and set it down right across Peridot’s middle. It worked as well as any iron bar or pair of shackles. An impromptu, but rather visceral, form of restraint.

Peridot slammed her elbows against the mattress immediately. And yet, no amount of squirming or writhing on her part even budged the thing. With an air of satisfaction, Jasper noticed Peridot was no longer laughing, nor crying. None of her extravagant performance remained and, instead, had been replaced by little shrill squeaks of panic. She sounded like vermin stuck in a trap.

Jasper moved around the bed frame, coming to crouch down next to Peridot’s top half from where it poked out from beneath the mattress. “Comfortable?”

A feral growl answered her. “ _Get this off of me!_ ” Peridot jerked her hips in an attempt to dislodge herself, to no avail. “Are you...are you going to fuck me like this?”

That actually made Jasper laugh. “I bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you? I bet that would play right into your greedy little hands. Or, well,” she eyed the amputated stumps that were all that remained of Peridot’s forearms, “whatever it is you still have.”

“I bet you would like it, too,” Peridot said. She must have thought herself some sort of temptress, for she leaned up into Jasper’s face, searching for a kiss.

Jasper did not kiss her. She wrapped a hand around Peridot’s skull and slammed her head back down to the ground. It made a sickeningly dense thud sound when it connected. “I’m going to pilot the ship back to Homeworld myself,” she said. “And you’re going to stay here. Out of my way.”

Beneath the flesh of Jasper’s palm, Peridot gurgled something, wailed in pain.

“If you had wrists, I’d string you up like you did with that pearl. Maybe you’d learn some respect.” This time, when Jasper moved her fingers away from Peridot’s eyes, she could see the fear in them. True fear, this time. Not the false, coy terror dredged up from the bottomless well where Peridot kept her fantasies. Jasper grinned down at her.  “Do you understand? I’m going to leave you here. Alone. No one is going to come and help you.”

“No. Don’t _leave_ me.”

Jasper leaned down, hunched close to Peridot’s face. Close enough that she could hear her rasping breath at her ear. “It’s going to be a long trip for you. I’ll be sure to fuck the pearl a couple times in your honor, though.” And then she sat back, reveling in the look of pure devastation that pulled at Peridot’s features.

“Jasper, don’t leave me,” she said. “Please don’t.”

It felt like victory when Peridot reached up towards her, begging to be taken. A child, beseeching to be carried. Jasper savored it. Stood and gazed down upon her magnum opus for a while longer. And then, once the sniveling began to bore her, she turned and began collecting Peridot’s discarded limbs. A leg here, a few fingers there. She tucked them under her arm with finality. Now _that_ got a reaction.

“ _I hate you! I hate you, Jasper, I fucking hate everything about you_.”

More obscenities. Jasper let them gloss right off her. They were nothing.

It was only then, when Jasper stood at the doorway after having taken every ounce of safety and comfort Peridot held dear, that she really seemed to grasp the full weight of what was about to happen to her. Her malicious tune grew discordant as she doubled back, instantly regretting any vitriol she’d ever spewed.

“ _Please!_ ” Peridot screamed so hard her ribs jutted from her chest like stark, vaulted columns, “ _I’m sorry! I really mean it, I do, I mean it, please don’t leave me like this, Jasper. Please just_ —”

Musical. So this was the sound of Peridot in the throes of a nightmare. Just a series of mirrors flipping in the dark so quickly it was difficult to tell which was her real face and which was just a reflection. Jasper wondered if Peridot even knew or if she was simply prepared to say anything at this point to try and wriggle her way free.

It was like that Jasper left her. Those lonely cries echoed down the ships corridors and Jasper hummed along with them as she made her way back to her pearl.

 

* * *

 

Space was a desolate place; Peridot had always known this. And yet never before had it felt more desolate than the moment when Peridot screamed into the void and no one answered her. It felt as though she wasn’t on a ship occupied by three other gems. No one came, no one answered her cries for help, for anything. It was as if all three had jumped ship and left her alone here on the floor to spiral into the vacuum of space for all eternity.

Peridot didn’t want to be alone. She could endure anything, anything but that. Panic wouldn’t leave her chest and the thoughts kept coming back to her—what if they really did leave her? What if they took an escape pod back to Homeworld and left her here to suffer? Jasper would do it, wouldn’t she? She’d been so infuriated...

A dart of blue flashed out of the corner of her eye. It was the first sign of life she’d seen in hours.

“Lapis!” she cried.

No answer. No sound. But Peridot knew better than to trust the silence.

“Lapis, please, I know you’re there. Please, please, _please_ come help me!”

More silence.

“I know you can _hear me_ , Lapis. Just...just come here for a minute. Only for a minute, please?” she begged. “Please?”

She was rewarded a few moments later when Lapis’s head appeared around the threshold, a picture of prudence and restraint. But if Peridot could get her to show herself once, it meant Lapis wanted to be seen. She knew she could draw her out even further with just a little effort and the right touch.

“I’ve been here for hours, Lapis.” She paused. “Alone. Trapped.”

Whatever chord Peridot struck in Lapis’s more vulnerable underbelly, it worked to bring her from the shadows. Soon, Lapis slipped into the room, hugging the door frame like she didn’t want to leave the safety of a wall at her back. But finally, after a lengthy pause, she stepped towards the center of the room where Peridot was pinned.

“I could hear you crying,” she murmured, her bare feet silent against the floor in her approach, “I couldn’t get away from it. Your voice carries.”

Peridot looked up at her, watching as the dim light overhead cast a halo over her head and hair. There was a sadness, a reluctance in her voice that was reflected on her face. Was it pity? Empathy?

“Will you help me?” Peridot said. She strained up against the bed.

Lapis shook her head slowly. “No.” And yet, despite her refusal to help, Lapis still sat down beside Peridot with her legs curled underneath her and her dress fanned out in a pool of fabric. She leaned her back against the bed frame.

Peridot was breathless. “Will you stay?”

“For a little while.”

They sat like that together. So long, in fact, that Peridot memorized the way Lapis’s hair fell over her forehead. She noted the creases of her dress. Even the curve of her nose where the light spilled across the bridge of it and onto her cheek. They were nice details and soon Peridot found her breath slowing from the panicked rush she’d been experiencing earlier. There was a lull.

“It feels better with you here,” Peridot admitted.

“Being alone,” Lapis said, “can drive you mad.”

Yes, yes it could. Peridot nodded and felt base of her skull rock against the floor.

“When you’re trapped,” Lapis said, “It helps to remember that this is not forever. You’ll be free soon. Keep thinking about that, and maybe you’ll find comfort in it.”

“Is that what you thought about? When you were in that mirror?”

Lapis tilted her head, gave Peridot a sad little smile. “No.”

“What did you think about?”

There was no answer to that question. Lapis just smiled down at her, mum and mute. She reached down and rubbed her thumb upon a smudge on Peridot’s visor. Cleaned the speck right off. The thumb traced down her cheek, not even bothering to avoid the mess of fluid that still clung to her skin. Drawn to the pout of Peridot’s lips, it lingered there, brushing over and over the form. Lapis stared at her, fixated. And then, on a whim, Peridot kissed her. Just her thumb. Not even a kiss, really. She just pressed her lips against the pad of her finger and closed her eyes. The tip of her tongue dabbed out for just a second, just enough to taste. Yes. She tasted like home, like salt and a small pinching zest of—

And suddenly there were lips on hers. Soft and close. She could hear Lapis’s sharp inhale—or was it her own?—and yet, when she tried to push up against it to capture it, to seal it with the fervor that rose in her, it disappeared.

Peridot opened her eyes to see Lapis hovering over her, their faces too close. It was very confusing. “Why won’t you help me?” she asked, her voice small.

“Because,” Lapis sighed. “You know if I help you, Jasper will punish me for it. You know I would get in trouble. I can’t afford that right now.”

It made sense. Lapis always did tend to walk with a shield on her back. Looking out for herself seemed to be her first priority for as long as she’d known her. Peridot tried to assure, “Well, you can’t possibly be in any more trouble than I am right now.” She gestured with her elbows to the wide, solid piece of furniture that loomed over the both of them.

Lapis frowned and glanced back at the up-ended bed. There was incredulity in her voice when she asked, “What did you do?”

“I reported her,” she said. There may have been an ounce of pride in her voice, but who was keeping track? “She got that pearl incubating with a geode, so I reported her for it.”

“You _what?_ ”

Peridot couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. When Lapis’s eyes were wide in shock, she could see the pretty blue color reflected there and it was nice. “I reported her.”

It looked like Lapis still couldn’t believe it. She echoed Peridot’s humor with a giggle of her own, probably more in awe of Peridot’s brazen obstinance than anything else. It made Peridot laugh harder, so hard that it hurt at her middle where the bed was crushing her. And then it was the two of them cackling like they couldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop, not even if the ship went down in flames around them. And although, for the life of her, Peridot was unable to pinpoint exactly what it was they both found so humorous, it was alright. Maybe they didn’t need a reason. Maybe they could just enjoy it.

Then Peridot was laughing into Lapis’s mouth while Lapis laughed into hers. There were hands on either side of her face pulling her in, dragging her closer.

They were not laughing anymore. Peridot drew breath from her nose as she leaned up, feeling Lapis’s lips beneath hers give way when she sought more, more. This time, she didn’t draw away. And yet, the kiss was still a fragile thing that lived between them. Breathed through them, moved with the tilt and pitch of their jaws, feasted upon their friction. It was born and would die in the sliver of space and time that existed here. Peridot got the awful feeling that she would prematurely strangle it to death should she push any harder.

It was Lapis who pushed first. She parted her lips and out swept her tongue, come and gone in a flash. Peridot didn’t want to be left behind and so she followed with quivering zeal and drew Lapis’s lower lip between her own. She didn’t want to kill it, didn’t want to kill it...

Lapis kissed her back so hard that it pushed Peridot’s head right back down to the floor. There was a wet tongue and fingers in her hair. Her visor somehow ended up on her forehead at an awkward angle, but that was okay. It was all okay. When she kissed Lapis back, she wrapped her arms—what was left of them, anyhow—around her neck. Like that, she thought to herself, she could still hold her despite being trapped. Just a little bit, just for a while.

They kissed until the ventilation system turned on. It created a loud, ingressive noise that jolted them both back to the miserable realm to which they belonged.

When they pulled apart, she could see that Lapis’s lips were flushed. So were her cheeks.

“I’m glad you’re coming to live with me,” Peridot murmured. “We can do this more.”

Lapis smile down at her, covert and demure. “Only if you don’t report me.”

A laugh barked from Peridot’s chest, robust enough for the bedframe to pinch her hard in the side. “I won’t,” she said. “I won’t.”


	3. A Long Way From Numb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People have been asking for a very long time for Amethyst and Garnet’s reactions to the broadcasts Peridot has been sending them. This insert was interesting to write because it took CH 6 (which is from Pearl’s perspective) and turned it around so that I had the opportunity to write it from an outside point of view. So I got to write the same scene twice, but with completely different moods and interpretations based on a number of complex factors. Take from it what you will and enjoy!

When Steven’s television began to buzz, they knew it was time. Despite themselves, despite having planned for this, everything dissolved into chaos. Even Garnet, who fought to remain steady and balanced for Steven’s sake, raised her voice when Amethyst raced to turn on the television screen before they even had the chance to get him out of the house.

It was the middle of the night and the shadow of the Temple loomed tall across the sands of the beach, so they packed a pillow and blanket with Steven when they sent him over to Greg at the car wash. Lion went with him. They watched his retreat from the porch to make certain he was gone before the static drone of the television screen lured them both back inside. Amethyst first. Then Garnet.

They sat together in front of the television as it hummed and crackled, waiting for the transmission to arrive. The clock at Steven’s bedside ticked with the seconds that passed between them in the dark.

“Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead,” Amethyst murmured into her fists. The static of the television screen reflected in her wide eyes.

“They wouldn’t bother if she was already dead.” Garnet spoke reason as best she could, even if she warred inside over it.

“I can’t do this again. It’s not fair.”

Garnet just kept her gaze ahead. Controlled, solid.

“It’s not fair to _her_.”

The television screen stuttered and Amethyst fell silent. They watched as a distorted image began to coalesce, saturated in green hues and stuttering pixels. The signal had been traveling through space for over a half hour and just now it found berth.

Pearl’s face was the first thing that came into focus. She was wincing with gritted teeth and dead eyes. It looked like she was being filmed from above, the cast of green light making her look even more sickly.

There was a groan from Amethyst, her hands going to her forehead. Torture. Immediately, she thought ‘torture’ and readied herself for the onslaught of screaming and blood. She’d heard stories of what horrors could be wrought upon a gem’s body when it was stabilized and they couldn’t retreat to their gemstone. Only stories, of course, but they were vivid enough to remain stuck in her mind. When the camera panned down, she was convinced that there wasn’t going to be a body attached to Pearl’s neck anymore.

“Oh no,” Amethyst’s hands slipped down, ready to cover her eyes the moment it became too much. She all but peered out from between her fingers as Pearl made a desperate little sound. “I can’t watch this.”

“We have to. It’s all we can do for her now,” Garnet said.

She was right of course, but that didn’t stop it from being unbearable. As much as it hurt to have to watch this happen to Pearl, the idea of turning the television off and simply walking away from her plight was the far worse option. For her, Amethyst would do this. She’d watch it all.

“Greetings, Crystal Gems,” came the nasally salutation. “As per our agreement, I am here with your comrade. As you can see, the pearl is still very much alive. She’s been a model prisoner, actually. Barely even put up a fight. You should be _happy_ to know that rehabilitation is our goal and we have made great progress. In fact, we want you to see just how much progress we’ve made. I mean, she’s basically back to her natural state by now; slavish Nursery pearl that she is.”

Amethyst hissed on Pearl’s behalf. Pearl had told her about the Nursery and entrusted her with the knowledge of everything she used to be. She and Garnet both knew of it, and yet hearing such a slur spoken aloud with such cruelty was a jolt to the system, a scathing reminder.

“She knew this was what was going to happen,” Garnet emphasized for what seemed like the hundredth time.

And then the camera panned down and there were hands cupping Pearl’s breasts. They were large hands that Amethyst recognized as belonging to the jasper leading the expedition, with knuckles that she had become well acquainted with in the midst of battle. And now they roamed Pearl’s body like they owned it.

The worst part, the very _worst_ part of it all, was that Pearl wasn’t fighting. She lay beneath her captor with her hands resting complacently at her sides, moaning in that heady, needy way that Amethyst had recently become intimately familiar with. From the way Garnet tensed up beside her, it was clear she recognized it too.

“She can’t be enjoying it,” Amethyst said. “She’s faking it. She has to be—”

“She’s not faking it.” There was devastation in Garnet’s voice.

An even louder, more heart-felt moan drifted through the television speakers. Even if they couldn’t yet see what was going on, it was clear Pearl was being pleasured.

Somewhere, deep down in the greediest parts that ruled Amethyst’s impulse and sense of dominion, she wished Pearl was being tortured instead.

Peridot’s voice cut through it all. “You’re forgetting to smile.” It triggered a confrontation, one that was difficult to see because the view shifted wildly when Peridot apparently leapt back, but there was some yelling. And then they were met with the sight of Jasper burying her face between Pearl’s legs like she’d found herself a home, Pearl even spreading herself open like she wanted her there. She squirmed and reached for Jasper’s hair and rolled her hips against her mouth like they were _lovers_.

“Why are they doing this to her?”

Garnet didn’t answer.

“Is...is she broken? Did they break her? What did they do to her to make her—?”

“Yes,” came a moan that most definitely belonged to Pearl.

Amethyst whipped her head back around to stare at the television, unable to believe what she had just heard. It sounded so wrong, so foul, so...sincere.

“Yes,” Pearl’s lips moved with her words until it was undeniable they were coming from her, “Yes, yes!” Her cries were pitching up in intensity and her body was shivering there where she lay enclosed by Jasper’s arms. She moved like she wanted to. _Wanted_ to.

It stole the hope right out of Amethyst’s chest. She couldn’t even look at Garnet anymore, too transfixed by the way Pearl’s hips rolled. Her voice was hoarse. “They’re going to make her do it? They’re really going to make her do it like this?”

“ _Oh, yes!_ ”

Garnet said nothing. The frame of Steven’s bed creaked where her hands tightened on the wood.

They made Pearl come. How they managed to do it, Amethyst didn’t know, nor did she want to. She just watched as they did it, wishing she was numb to it all, but knowing she was anything but. Weeks of this crushing guilt and rage and emptiness culminated into this moment where she had to watch them force Pearl to orgasm and make her act like she enjoyed every second of it. They must have cracked open Pearl’s gem, scrambled up everything inside, and sealed her closed again; there was no other explanation for what Amethyst just witnessed.

“Look at me, Pearl. Look at me.” The broadcast crowded close to Pearl’s face. She appeared disoriented, far away. Like she was living outside of her body for several long moments as her eyes stared directly into the camera. It felt like she was looking right through them, now.  She tried to look away, but Peridot just drew her right back in. “Did you like that?”

It made Amethyst’s stomach roll with bile. She made a mental note to rip that peridot apart if she ever showed her face on Earth again, truce deal or not. Her snide, condescending way of speaking to Pearl was too much, too adept at scraping down all the raw little marks anchored on Amethyst’s heart. How dare she. Lording herself over Pearl as though she was stronger, better, more composed, regardless of the fact that Pearl had almost taken Peridot’s head clean off during their battle on the beach a few weeks ago. Weak little power-hungry thing this peridot was, probably felt pretty good about herself leaning over a confused and fucked-out pearl.

At that point, it should have been over. Amethyst expected the screen to go dark any moment now, for they had shown all they needed to. They had probably tortured and disoriented Pearl long and hard enough to get her to lie there in compliance, pleasured her to teach them a lesson, and made her orgasm as the final, victorious blow. And yet, even after all that, they weren’t satisfied.

Pearl was back to gasping on the bed, tossing her head to one side and, even though Amethyst could only see her face, she knew they were doing something to her down between her legs. She just couldn’t see _what_. That was, until the camera began to glide down the length of Pearl’s body, skimming over her breasts, her straining ribs and abdomen, hips, and finally came to focus lewdly on the thick, elongated tool they thrust into her wet, open cunt.

She could hear Garnet’s sharp intake of breath beside her.

The camera was so close, they could hear the slurp and suck of her quim every time Jasper drew that handle out of her and pushed it back in. She was so _wet_. Amethyst could see the bud of Pearl’s clit, aroused and peeking out from beneath its hood and knew that it didn’t lie—she wanted this. Every ounce of syrupy, revealing fluid clinging to the metal of the instrument inside of her belonged to Pearl and her desire.

What did they _do_ to her?

And then Pearl’s hands crept into frame. They reached towards where Jasper had a grip on the handle. At first, Amethyst thought she was going to stop it, try to pull this thing out of her body and stop this charade.

“That’s right, Pearl,” Amethyst murmured, leaning closer to the television. “Fight ‘em.”

Garnet shook her head. “She shouldn’t fight them...”

“She _needs_ to fight them.”

But Pearl didn’t fight. Instead, she helped Jasper draw the instrument further inside her, helped her find all the ways in which to make her cry out in pleasure. She gave in. She’d given up. And Amethyst had to watch, with a failing sense of reality, as Pearl facilitated their use of her body by guiding them right to where it felt best, arching and moaning to reward their efforts.

“Look at her go,” Peridot murmured. “She really likes that, doesn’t she? Typical pearl behavior; not happy unless she’s impaled on something or other.”

_What did they do to her?_

“That’s not her,” Amethyst shook her head, stunned. “Pearl doesn’t like it that way. She doesn’t like it that rough—don’t they know she doesn’t like it rough?”

“Amethyst, please.”

But Amethyst would not stop. Not for Garnet, not for the infuriating, nasally voice that continue to spew lewd things at them from the television. “She likes it _gentle_. And patient. She can’t handle it rough.”

“They don’t care, Amethyst.”

“If that was Pearl, she wouldn’t just _let_ them—”

This time, Garnet turned to her, sweeping her glasses from her face in one, swift motion so that Amethyst could see the sincerity in her eyes. So that maybe she could ground herself in them. “That _is_ Pearl,” she said. “That is.”

Amethyst didn’t want to believe it to be true. It was so much easier to deny and question and balk than it was to accept this all as their reality. Perhaps that was why she relied so much on imagining this was some great temporary tragedy that could come undone and Garnet was the one who faced it all as it was. Garnet was strong enough to deal with truth while Amethyst still had to pretend it was a nightmare just to get through the day.

It must have been really difficult, Amethyst thought to herself, to accept it. Quite suddenly, she found she wanted to offer Garnet some sort of comfort—or maybe an apology—for not doing her part in making any of this easier. She realized this now while staring into the wound visible only through the threshold of Garnet’s eyes with Pearl’s moans ringing in her ears. Amethyst’s rage and defiance likely only served to contribute to this loop of grief that had been circling over the four of them—Steven, Amethyst, Garnet, and Greg alike. Their family. She opened her mouth and waited for the words to come out, but there were none.

So caught up in each other, Garnet and Amethyst almost missed the commotion on the television. It was a terrified cry from Peridot that brought them both back, only to see Jasper looming over Pearl, half-undressed. Their bodies writhed together but, between the tangle of limbs and the odd, shaking angle of the camera, the form of Jasper’s cock was clearly visible where it rubbed up between Pearl’s legs. Brutally thick and driving forth against her body, even before it could find its way inside her.

“No,” Garnet breathed.

It was all happening so fast and Peridot was not controlling the camera very well anymore now that she sounded very uncomfortable with what was happening. Amethyst could barely keep up, didn’t even know with what emotion she was supposed to react when she realized what was about to happen. All she could do was clutch her hair in both hands and swear.

They watched in silence as Jasper fucked her. What they could see of it, anyway. Pearl’s legs jutting up from beneath Jasper’s bulk, her knees and toes jerking in reflex every time she was thrust into. Her white-knuckled hands parting through volumes of wild hair to fight for purchase. The sound of them rutting together was lewd and punctuated every time their hips smacked together, Pearl’s long, drawn-out wailing cut through it all until she ran out of breath to move through her lungs. And then she took a great gasp and started yelling all over again.

It was, Amethyst decided, the worst thing she’d ever had to watch.

The moment Jasper came and Pearl’s abdomen began to visibly fill, however, Amethyst quickly rescinded that decision. Nothing, nothing could ever be worse than watching the moment where Pearl was reduced, after thousands of years of rejecting her primary function, to a mere pearl. She hadn’t even reached Homeworld and already they treated her like a receptacle; a vessel to be filled. It was debasing, rendering Pearl into something she was not, not as long as Amethyst had known her. Pearl was so, so much more than—

Amethyst had to cover her ears when Pearl screamed. The sound was unnatural, like she left her body and something else lived inside of it, controlling her and making that wretched noise through the grit of her teeth. She’d never heard such a scream from Pearl, not for her pleasure nor her pain.

And then the transmission cut out abruptly and dissolved into static once more.

They sat together in the dark for a long while. The clock on the shelf ticked by the seconds between them. Static, darkness. Then the broadcast started to loop once more on the television, so Garnet reached over, one arm hugging her knee to her chest, and deftly unplugged the television from the wall.

There was blessed silence. Numb, terrible silence that seemed so unfitting in the wake of the disaster they had just witnessed. Where was the screaming? The crying? The uproar of thousands of voices crying out in indignation as to what had just happened. It felt like Pearl deserved as much, if not more, to acknowledge the injustice of her imprisonment. But there was nothing. And there never would be. Just Garnet and Amethyst sitting together in an empty house, quiet.

Amethyst could only come to one conclusion. “We didn’t do the right thing,” she whispered. “She’s alone. She’s broken. And now she’s...”

“We did all we could, Amethyst. _Please_.”

There was a desperation in Garnet’s voice that had Amethyst sealing her lips together and looking away. She had gone and done it again—driving Garnet to the end of her rope by refusing to take things as they were.

Garnet softened again almost immediately. One of her hands came to rest on Amethyst’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re hurting; I know you are. I just wish I knew how to fix it.”

“I just want Pearl back,” she said and leaned into the touch. She curled close, buried her face into Garnet. For the first time since her world had fallen apart, Amethyst put aside the storm that rattled and thrived inside her and sought the solidarity of comfort instead.

With both arms and an aching heart, Garnet held her. “Me, too.”


	4. A Long Way From Celibacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Intended to take place after CH9 of A Long Way From Home.

“Did she touch you like this?” Yellow Diamond twisted her fingers.

Her pearl swooned, knuckles white from her grip on Yellow Diamond’s knees. She lay sprawled in her lap. “Oo—ooh, yes!”

A lewd sound accompanied Yellow Diamond’s fingers when they plunged into Pearl again well beyond the second knuckle. “And like this?”

“M-my Diamond...”

“Tell me.”

Like a wilting lily, Pearl threw a hand over her forehead and mewled in her most practiced waver. “Yes. Like that.” The rumpled chiffon robe tangled beneath her body told the story of how she had just barely walked into Yellow Diamond’s private chambers before she’d been seized and swept up into the pair of large hands she’d grown accustomed to submitting to. They’d ripped every last stitch of fabric off and tossed her down like the toy she was. A pretty plaything. She happily acted her part, too; her cries were theatrical and exaggerated. She enjoyed playing this role, she was made to play this role just as she had been created from perfectly crafted layers of calcium carbonate painted over each other bit by painstaking bit. Not like some of those other pearls that were slapped together just for breeding. She was a work of art commissioned by Yellow Diamond herself to serve, entertain, and please. So how could she not? Her diamond was the most elegant and powerful cosmic being in all the universe—how could she not feel compelled to obey her? The hands that held her now could crush her effortlessly, and yet they had never made a move to do so. Instead, they toured her body. One of Yellow Diamond’s fingers ran down the middle of Pearl’s chest, across her ribcage, down her soft belly. It nudged between her thighs and Pearl looked up at her diamond with shining eyes.

Did Pearl fear her? Yes. But she also revered her.

“You were a stubborn little thing today.” Yellow Diamond flicked the tip of her pinkie over Pearl’s clit. It was too large of a finger to be precise, but that was okay. Pearl whined anyway. “You didn’t listen very well.”

Pearl simpered, her thighs falling open. “I didn’t want that jasper, my Diamond. I wanted _you_.” Her eyes were lit with wicked fire when she looked up. She knew she was being coquettish. The ripe pink of her nipples was in full bloom as Pearl let her fingers skitter over them, entirely for show. She sighed.

Yellow Diamond leaned over her toy. “You did, did you?” Her eyes glowed. “Show me.”

Unhesitating, Pearl reached down and grasped the finger that was tantalizing her clit. She gave it a gentle tug—that was all she needed to do. Though she was small and weak compared to her diamond, she was given the privilege of being able to guide her with only the power of suggestion. Yellow Diamond granted her this, allowed her entire hand to be lured away by two tiny ones wrapped around her pinkie finger. Pearl directed it up her body, pulled it towards her mouth. And then she wrapped her lips around the tip of Yellow Diamond’s finger. Sucked. Batted her eyelashes with the intent to woo and perform.

A low, pleased hum revealed that Yellow Diamond was enjoying the display. “Look at you,” she cooed. “Using your mouth so nicely. Greedy thing, you are.”

“I am,” Pearl agreed.

“Was the jasper not enough for you?”

Pearl shook her head and spread her legs open a little wider under the guise of stretching, opening herself to more of her diamond’s ministrations. So petite, she did not look like she could take more. But Pearl had been designed for this. She had been made for a diamond. This diamond. And so she begged, “More, please.”

“Greedy.” Yellow Diamond pushed a third finger into her pearl. Curled them. Beckoned. Watched her closely.

The soft cry from Pearl was genuine, not theatrical. She shivered. Canted her hips up to give her diamond complete access. There was no question about who owned her, who possessed her. Yellow Diamond provided everything she had ever needed or wanted, and Pearl gave her everything in return. Body, mind, and soul. Had Yellow Diamond wanted to break her, it would have only been fair. And yet she never did. She only pleasured. It made Pearl worship her even more.

“Good, Pearl,” Yellow Diamond said. “What a good pearl you are. Keep your legs open for me just like that.” With three fingers deep inside, it was easy for her to nudge her thumb up against the slit of her vulva. After millennia of tending to her pearl like this, it was second nature for her to be gentle when she began to massage her sensitive clit. It was such a small little bud to begin with, but that was just fine for her. It was hard to be precise when her doll was so diminutive anyway.

The face Pearl made was satisfying to watch. She chirruped like a sparrow. Yellow Diamond rewarded her by prodding a finger against her cheek, stroking her with something that looked very much like affection. “Do you like that, Pearl?”

“ _Yes!_ ”

Her sweet cunt was spread wide around the fingers inside. Lovely pastel folds opened for Yellow Diamond, sopping and plump with desire. There was still a scant amount of gold dust clinging to them where the jasper’s invading tongue hadn’t managed to reach. The gold had been intended for Yellow Diamond to enjoy. Seeing its remnants only reminded her of what she had allowed that disgraceful gem to access. Had she been less restrained, Yellow Diamond would not have been inclined to use her favorite toy in court, but, of course, being an Authority was never an easy task. Sometimes sacrifices had to be made. Sometimes she had to make a point at the expense of her own desires.

“Oo, my Diamond, my Diamond...” Pearl’s toes were curling. Yellow Diamond could feel them against her thighs.

Yellow Diamond smiled. For once, her expression was soft. “You may,” she said. Because Pearl never needed to ask anymore. Especially since she was always so good.

Pearl came, clenching around her diamond’s fingers. She felt weak and malleable on Yellow Diamond’s lap as she shuddered through her whole release. Chiffon wrinkled beneath her when she squirmed. As she descended from her blissful high she whimpered like she was wounded.

“There, there.” Yellow Diamond stroked Pearl’s belly to comfort her. “You did so well.”

More whimpering, but it grew softer as Pearl settled into the afterglow. Her legs lolled out to either side, limp as could be. They shifted only minutely when the fingers pulled out of her, accompanied by the wet suction sound of her cunt refusing to let go. The sight of her open and glistening was beautiful. Her skin was so pale, and yet where she blossomed, she was a bright and succulent pink. Each of her folds was parted to grant Yellow Diamond an exclusive view of her entrance, still throbbing lazily.

Yellow Diamond had kissed that delightful vulva more times than she could count, had come away from their engagements with gold-dusted lips for it. Today, she only stroked the crest of Pearl’s pubis instead with her thumb. She would kiss her another time, perhaps.

“My Diamond,” Pearl said, “thank you.”

“Good girl.” With cupped hands, Yellow Diamond cradled her pearl. Gingerly, she set her upon the chaise. Nestled her against a throng of pillows until she looked comfortable. Plucked the chiffon robe out from beneath her. She looked very much as though she was playing with a doll—arranging her limbs as she saw fit and taking care with her small garments. Pearl was happy to let her, far too used to this sort of treatment to protest.

A comfortable silence fell over them. Yellow Diamond pulled up a console and began to scroll through data as Pearl lounged at her hip. Much had happened during their tryst. A gem of her authority could not afford to neglect the proceedings of her empire for long.

She managed to get through several screens of logs before she felt the tickle of fingers at her hip. She did not look down. “Yes, Pearl?”

Pearl rolled onto her stomach, propping her head up on her hands. She watched her diamond carefully. “That jasper,” she said, timid. “That jasper found the cap.”

Yellow Diamond halted. Though her head did not move, she looked down upon Pearl with her full attention. “What?”

“When she had her fingers inside me, she found it. I know she felt it. She...she was poking at it.” Pearl frowned. Paused. “Do you think she knows?”

Only the twitch of the corner of Yellow Diamond’s lips revealed that something inside was simmering. Churning. She sucked in her cheeks for a moment, sighed through her nose. “Thank you for informing me. I’ll keep my eye on her.”

Yellow Diamond pulled up yet another screen. This time, her fingers worked, sifting through data at a speed that would have made any peridot jealous of until she found the file depicting the jasper in question. Tall, perfectly formed, multi-faceted gem. By all records, a perfect soldier. And yet... “A very close eye, indeed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked that chapter! If you want to see more from me, check out my Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/usuallybutts?ty=h )! Even stop by my Twitter (https://twitter.com/usuallybutts ) if you’d like.
> 
> Special thanks to my betas for this chapter:
> 
> superlunarloser on Tumblr
> 
> Zoey


	5. A Long Way From Homeworld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Best if read after CH 14 of ALWFH. This time, we go further into the backstory of Pearl and Angel with a heavy focus on Pearl grappling with memories of the Nursery.

The fog of the battle cleared as the sun loomed on the horizon and the rays cut through thick forest canopy. A long, harrowing night became a victorious morning for the Crystal Gems. It was only one battle of many in this long, terrible war, but these battles added up.

Pearl sat amongst the victorious rebels, honing the point of her spear. She listened to her compatriots laugh and talk. Some of the apprehension of combat remained; there were many rebel gems who had been vaporized or cracked during the fray. But the vaporized ones would return soon enough and the cracked ones were already being transported to Rose for healing.

Every gem here had their own story, their own reason. Homeworld outcasts made up the bulk of their forces. Dozens of peridots, gypsums, and opals tired of abuse joined them and learned to fight. There were the rescues, too, like the pair of twin carnelians from the Beta Kindergarten fused at the gems on their backs. Rebel infiltration rescued them from the Kindergarten before Homeworld had the chance to crush them. There was a jasper missing an arm. A citrine who couldn’t speak. Misfits of all shape, size, and cut. So many different gems from so many different places. The one thing they all had in common was the look of utter determination in their eyes.

“ _Intruders! Intruders!_ ”

The call from one of the look-outs deeper in the forest made the group startle from their respite. The emergency could have been anything: Homeworld forces could be coming back for more, spies could have been discovered, or even wandering bands of humans could have stumbled across their camp by accident. Whatever the case, Pearl leapt up with weapon drawn and charged off toward the distress call. Her band of gems followed in her wake.

They ran through a thicket, then a meadow, splashed through a burbling creek.

“ _Intruders!_ ”

The outpost was close. The trees thinned as they approached.

There in the clearing stood the western lookout crew. A handful of rubies and a turquoise stood in a semi-circle at the base of the outpost wall, weapons drawn towards a larger group of enormous, armored war-gems.

At first glance, this looked bad. It looked as though this was about to become another battle. but as Pearl grew closer, she could see these rival soldiers were not looking to fight. They all stood with their hands raised in the air, heads lowered. It was a posture of surrender.

Curious.

Pearl approached. “What is the meaning of this?” she said. “Who are these interlopers?”

A ruby saluted. “We don’t know. They came out of the woods like this. They say they want to parlay with Rose Quartz. They say they’re not with Homeworld.”

She skimmed over the white diamond emblazed on the front of the soldiers’ uniforms with skepticism. “Is that so?”

“What do you think? Should we let these quartz gems through?” Another ruby said.

“If they try anything, we’ll send ‘em back to white diamond in pieces!” A gem from Pearl’s crew chimed in.

A rumble of dissonance from the rebels closing in on the small squad of quartz gems revealed just how thirsty they were to beat back these soldiers. Pearl didn’t blame them. These soldiers were perfect—large, imposing, flawlessly constructed. Even with their shoulders hunched in surrender, they ignited fear in the rebels due to their stature, due to the fact that they looked almost exactly like the Homeworld soldiers they fought relentlessly on the battlefield just hours ago.

Maybe this was a ruse. Or maybe this was a sign the tides were turning.

“Which one is their leader?” Pearl put a hand out to silence the anxious murmurings from her group.

One of the quartz gems looked up from beneath the rim of her helmet. “I am,” she said and stood to her full height. Her white, iridescent eyes glowed in the morning sunlight. Specks of color glistened in her skin, from her sturdy neck to the faceted gem at her throat, to the palms of her hands open in surrender. War braids draped beneath her helmet. Pearl paused as a spark of recognition caught her by surprise. From the look in the quartz gem’s wide eyes, the recognition was mutual.

“Angel?” Pearl took a step forward.

“You,” Angel Quartz said.

Pearl recognized those hands, those eyes, that mouth. It had been many years (centuries) since she had last seen Angel in the Nursery, but how could she forget these things? Seeing her again here and now, however, was unexpected. For the first time in a long time, Pearl was speechless.

“It’s you,” Angel murmured. “I can’t believe it’s you. They told me you weren’t in the Nursery anymore. I thought…I thought they’d—” Her face crumpled in distress.

“Do you two know each other?” Turquoise asked.

Pearl felt as though she was in a haze. “Yes. From a long time ago.”

As the words came out of her mouth the light in Angel’s eyes flared. She came closer, hands out in front of her, reaching. “Your voice. You can speak, I—”

“ _Yes, I can speak_.” Perhaps that came out too aggressive. Pearl was too used to barking that assertion whenever Homeworld gems became baffled at the very idea that she had the capacity to form full sentences. It felt a little harsh when she saw that it made Angel reel back.

“It’s just—it’s nice,” she said. “Nice to hear it, I mean.”

They stood awkwardly for another passing moment, looking each other over. Pearl felt tense, unsure. The quartz gems at Angel’s back looked to their general, awaiting her lead. Would they be let past the outpost or turned away? The rebel gems still brandished their weapon, ready to attack if given the order.

Finally, she made up her mind. “Let’s take them to Rose. She’ll want to speak with them.”

Weapons were sheathed. Surrendering hands lowered.

“Okay, but we’re keeping a real close eye on you all,” a ruby said as she ushered them on. “No sudden moves, got it?”

Pearl watched as the squad of quartz soldiers was led into the forest toward the main base where Rose Quartz awaited them. She caught a glimpse of Angel’s backward glance in her direction. It made her feel odd inside. A mix of butterflies beat in her chest—anxiety, excitement, something else? Pearl was not sure.

 

 

* * *

 

 

That evening, Pearl patrolled the southmost border of the base beneath a veil of stars. Tonight, she patrolled alone, though she wished for company. It would have been easier to stave off the unwelcome thoughts had someone been there with her to make idle conversation.

Just seeing Angel dredged up all sorts of memories of the Nursery. How could she not? She was a part of that experience, a part of the system. Pearl had only ever known Angel as a thread in the patchwork nightmare of her captivity, a nightmare she had spent so long scrubbing from her existence. And now it was back. All of it.

It almost didn’t seem fair, though. Angel had been nice, Angel had been kind. It didn’t seem fair that Pearl’s thoughts couldn’t separate her out as her own entity. Angel _wasn’t_ the Nursery, and yet when Pearl thought upon her now, she recalled white walls, cold clinical air, a belly heavy with geode…

Then Pearl was glad she was alone on patrol, for she cried through most of that evening, her arms wrapped around her knees as she curled into herself.

It wasn’t fair.

 

 

* * *

It was almost a week before she saw Angel again. By chance, they passed each other in the training yard while Pearl was on her way from a meeting with Rose. Their eyes met. Pearl’s heart fluttered. For a moment, she couldn’t decide whether she wanted to keep walking or stop to acknowledge her or just disappear altogether—

Angel made the choice for her.

“Hey,” she dissipated the broadsword in her hand and stepped off the sand pit. “Pearl.” She looked eager with that crooked smile on her face and that voice like warm honey.

“Oh! Angel. I see you’re fitting in well with the rest of the rebellion. Rose spoke highly of your convictions.” Pearl pulled the clipboard to her chest.

Angel looped her fingers into the buckles of her armor and nodded. She stood with a casual grace, as if speaking to someone she’d known for a long time. A friend, even. “Yeah, yeah. I just couldn’t sit by when White Diamond wanted me to send my troops out to a suicide mission. Just couldn’t do it. Too many good gems that served for too many millennia. Just didn’t make sense. So I took all that would follow and smuggled them to Earth. It’s a little different here, but I think we’ll manage.”

Pearl nodded. She hated how her lips pressed together on instinct.

From the look of concern on Angel’s face, she didn’t like it either.

“So, uh. Color me surprised to learn you were the rebel pearl I’d been hearing about all these years,” she prompted. Another grin, but this time less assured.

“Mm-hmm,” was all Pearl could get out. Her eyes flashed toward the open gateway to the training ground.

This time, Angel’s face fell. There was worry etched into the corners of her mouth. Her voice was quiet. “You know I like hearing you talk, right? It’s nice, Pearl. I really like it.”

A burst of emotion welled in Pearl’s chest. She wasn’t sure whether it was good or bad, but she knew it was teetering on the brink of overwhelming. There was no time to figure it out now, no time to figure out what triggered it. All she wanted to do was escape. “I have to go,” she blurted. Still hugging her clipboard, she hurried for the gateway, leaving behind a stunned and worried-looking Angel.

 

 

* * *

 

Angel didn’t speak to her after that. Any time Pearl passed through the training yard where the quartz soldiers spent most of their time, she expected Angel to track her down and try to speak to her again. Quartz gems were like that—they preferred to challenge their problems head-on. They thrived off confrontation. Boundaries needed to be laid out in explicit terms lest a quartz gem blunder their way through it.

But Angel left her alone.

Pearl saw her in the training yard in full armor, broadsword swinging, often. And yet even when Pearl crossed through in plain sight, Angel kept her head down, kept her distance.

Part of Pearl was relieved. The other part of her was sad.

It wasn’t Angel’s fault Pearl felt like this. How could she know? It wasn’t her fault.

 

* * *

 

 

One afternoon, word came from the insurgent spies that another Kindergarten was being constructed by the Diamonds in the Asiatic sector of Earth. No other specifics were provided, but a mission was launched in an effort to thwart the progress. Rose had to stay at the base for the time being in case any more attacks were directed to them, but Pearl was more than eager to lead the mission. Tracking down Kindergarten equipment and destroying the lot of it would be a pleasure.

Rose assembled an elite group of gems to assist Pearl with the mission. Of course Pearl trusted her judgement.

And that was how Pearl ended up sitting across from Angel in the cramped quarters of the rebel jet racer. They sat strapped into their harnesses with the rest of the squad, awaiting deployment into the field, but it was a long trip yet. The flight would take them to another continent.

The tension was palpable. Angel hunched in her harness and stared at her hands most of the way. Pearl sat with rigid back and lips pressed tight. Neither looked at the other.

It was, indeed, a long trip.

The other gems in the squad enjoyed themselves. They joked and laughed, reaching across the aisle to smack each other on the knee when they told a particularly raucous joke. Some quartz gems, some tourmalines, a lazurite. They were about to embark on a most dangerous and important mission, and it seemed they were eager to form comradery with each other before the time came for them to go into the field. After all, these were the gems that would have their backs in the perilous times ahead. They would need to take care of each other, bond with each other. United, they were stronger.

Gems with experience as soldiers seemed to have an easier time accepting this reality. Pearl did not have this instinct.

“Hey.”

Pearl looked up. Her attention had wandered for much of the flight and now she startled upon seeing that Angel looked straight at her again from beneath the sweep of her bangs.

Angel looked almost pained. She spoke quietly enough that the chatty gems around them likely couldn’t hear. “I understand why you don’t want to see me,” she said. “I get it. I don’t blame you, Pearl. Don’t blame you at all. Let’s just get through this mission. Then I’ll ask Rose not to assign us together again. I’ll let her know.” Angel looked down at her work-worn boots. Her shoulders slumped against the harness. “I’m sorry.”

She meant it, too. Pearl could tell she meant it. And yet it was still difficult to find meaningful words. “Let’s just get through this mission. We shouldn’t think too much about it right now. This has to get done.”

“I agree,” Angel nodded. Her expression hardened into something stoic. This time, she made sure to meet Pearl’s eyes. “Don’t think there’s any doubt for me, either. I know you’re my officer here. I’ll follow your lead, Pearl.”

And when the time came, Angel did follow Pearl’s lead. She was marvelous, really. An old soldier, a former Homeworld _general_ , and a humble soul. Once the squad jumped from the jet and her feet touched Earth soil, Angel was attentive, trusting, tactical. When Pearl told her to flank left, she did. When Pearl told her to hold her position, she halted. There was no fear or apprehension in her eyes beneath her helm. The utter trust she had in Pearl’s abilities as the squad officer and her unwavering obedience was akin to that of a pawn on a chess board. Truly, Angel was as perfect a soldier as Homeworld ever created, and now she was Pearl’s to command.

The thought made Pearl feel odd inside. She pushed the sensation away and decided to think on it later once the mission was complete. The others relied on her now.

Massive cargo boxes of gem injectors stacked ten, twenty cases high lined the mountainous canyon below. They found the Kindergarten site. Just in time, too. None of the injectors were activated, but it looked as though the Homeworld peridots below were marking out facets.

Perfect.

With a battle cry, the crystal gems descended into the canyon below. Peridots scattered, screaming. A few poorly-aimed laser beams attempted to fend them off, but peridots were hardly soldiers. They ran, but not quite fast enough.

One of the peridots managed to get an alarm sent back to the base before falling to Pearl’s spear. Within moments, the warp pads lit up and dozens of Homeworld quartz gems poured out with snarls on their lips.

Not so perfect.

They had a job to do. Without prompting from Pearl, her squad rushed the enemy gems with weapons drawn.

The clash of platemail vibrated down the canyon as gems rammed into each other. Pearl had seen quartz gems wrestle for pleasure and entertainment many-a-time, but nothing compared to the sheer brutality of quartz sisters locked in a battle of life or death.

Through the throng of bodies, Pearl could see Angel had one gem pinned. Her broadsword flashed in the sunlight when she swung it over her head and vapor billowed when she brought it down with both hands.

Pearl’s advantage on the battlefield was how they always underestimated her. Gems would see her there, waifish and clutching her spear and it was when they took the time to throw back their head and laugh that Pearl plunged her spear past the plates of their armor.

The vapor of dissipated gems grew pale pink in the setting sun light. As the battle wore on the air became thick and milky as, one by one, the forces dwindled. They lost a few gems on their side, yes, but Rose would heal their cracks when they returned to the base. With the enemy quartzes taken care of, the remaining crystal gems were free to lay waste to the gem injectors and put an end to this Kindergarten once and for all.

They regrouped with the jet at the extraction point. This time, Angel strapped herself into the seat several rows down from Pearl, taking the slot of a fallen tourmaline. She fell into easy conversation with the rest of the squad as they recounted their recent victory over and over again.

Pearl put her head in her hand and watched the clouds go by as they returned to base.

 

* * *

 

 

“She was one of the gems that they sold me to in the Nursery.”

The drip-drip of dew on leaves echoed in the clearing. The forest air had a mulchy, rich smell after the noontide rainstorm. Pearl and Rose took shelter beneath an outcropping of rock to wait out the last of the weather before they headed back to base. Sometimes they took walks like this. It was partly to patrol the area, partly to spend time together. These were usually Pearl’s favorite walks. Today, however, they spoke on topics too serious for her to find enjoyment.

“I’m sorry, Pearl,” Rose said. Her lips pouted with a most delicate frown. “I didn’t know. If you’d like, I can send her away to another platoon so you don’t have to see her again. She told me she would understand.”

A comforting hand settled on Pearl’s shoulder. Warm, soft, radiant.

Pearl closed her eyes and let Rose into the deepest chambers of herself and see the parts of her that no one else could. She was safe here. Rose would always understand. “No, it’s not that,” Pearl said. “I liked Angel. Even back then, I liked her a lot. She was gentle and kind. There was something about her that made me look forward to seeing her again, even in that horrible place.”

The rain picked up again.

“Do you still like her?”

Pearl watched the clouds whisk by through the gaps in the canopy. It took a while for her to find the words. Rose waited patiently for them to form on her tongue. “Maybe,” she said. “I don’t know.”

Was it bad to want something so terrible? There was guilt in the memories of pleasure, so much guilt that it had spoiled to loathing after all those years. It was easy to hate others when Pearl didn’t have to look them in the eye or see them smile at her. In general, it was easy to hate if she could package everything up in a tiny compartment in the back of her heart and keep it there. She could take the grime and disarray and toss it all carelessly into a box. It might have been a hellish clutter inside, but once she closed the lid it looked clean enough, was officially dealt with, and signified a large checkmark next to a completed—albeit ugly—chapter in her life. Being forced to unpack that messy box, however, was not something she had anticipated.

Until Angel.

So hard to hate Angel. So hard to _think_ about Angel.

Guilt, fear, memories.

Her smile, her fond hands. The way she genuinely laughed in Pearl’s presence.

Pearl put her face in her palms and tried not to think.

Rose was right there next to her, rubbing a soothing circle between her shoulder blades. “It’s okay if you do like her. It’s also okay if you don’t. The Nursery was a terrible place for you, Pearl. It’s not wrong for you to want to avoid everything about it.” A bouquet of pink ringlets fell across Pearl’s back as Rose leaned in even closer. “It’s not wrong for you to still like a part of it, either.”

A weight lifted from Pearl’s chest. It felt like, for the first time in ages, she’d been given permission to breathe.

“She was so nice,” Pearl caught tears in the gaps between her fingers. “I’m just really afraid. I’m afraid it will never go away.”

“What won’t go away?”

“The Nursery.”

Rose answered with a sage hum. She understood. She always did. So much of Pearl’s journey had been hers too, after all. “There’s only one way to find out. Go talk to her, Pearl. See for yourself. It’s not fair to let the Nursery control you. You’re never going back. I promise.”

Two thumbs helped wipe tears from Pearl’s eyes. They continued their walk despite the rain. By the time they made it back to base, Pearl was so soaked through no one could tell she had been crying in the first place.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Pearl found Angel alone one night on patrol. She sat upon a thick tree branch high above the forest with her broadsword laid across her knees. The full moon wreathed her head.

If she hadn’t heard Pearl’s approach, she wasn’t obvious about it, for when Pearl sat down on the branch beside her, Angel did not spook. Her iridescent eyes were cast out upon the forest below, ever-vigilant.

For a while, they sat like that with at chaste meter or so of craggy branch between them. The crickets in the distance sang through the silence.

What a place this was, Pearl thought to herself. So different from the Nursery. Life was such a strange and unpredictable thing—who would have ever thought that she and Angel would be here like this, sitting amongst the leaves of an alien planet, practically equals (but for Pearl’s higher rank)? It was strange, emboldening. It felt like the right place for a new chapter.

“Angel,” Pearl said. “I want to talk to you.”

A small smile flickered on the corners of Angel’s lips. Her voice was low and crooning, as if she hadn’t spoken for days. “You know I like it when you talk.”

Somehow that managed to make Pearl’s cheeks heat up. Already? Pearl could have sworn she was better than this. “Yes, well. I didn’t come here to apologize,” she said. Her fists clenched at her sides. Defiant. Resolute. Rebellion poured from her as she got ready for the resistance she knew would come. “I’m not sorry. I want you to know that. I’m not sorry for how I acted and I’m not sorry for how I feel.”

To her surprise, Angel just nodded. She agreed, maybe even understood.

Pearl’s fists unclenched. She looked down at her hands and the breath she held came out all at once. She had a whole speech planned to make Angel understand. She had prepared for an argument and heated words. Pearl had planned to come in swinging, but it was difficult to throw punches when the thing she was fighting didn’t want to fight back. Perhaps she had misjudged.

An owl swooped above them in silence. They watched it until it ducked below the tree line.

“The Nursery was hard for me,” Pearl finally admitted. “It’s hard not to think about it when I’m around you.”

There: the truth of it. Raw and in the open.

Angel shifted. She turned her gaze to Pearl. “I never wanted to hurt you. You know that, right?”

“Yes. I know.”

They were both products of an unfortunate situation. Mislead, misguided.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about pearls since I saw you again,” Angel said. “I keep thinking about all the pearls I spent time with. Their personalities, their mannerisms. I never thought there was more to it than that. I hoped, yeah, but I always thought that was me just being a smitten softie. If I had known what was happening…” She trailed off, ran a hand over her face. “If I had really known, I would’ve done something. I would’ve smuggled them out somehow. I would’ve said something. I wouldn’t’ve…” She ran her hand over her face again, and this time Pearl could tell she was getting upset. Emotional, even. That was a rare thing for a quartz gem of her age and demeanor.

“Homeworld has done a lot of bad things,” Pearl said. “That’s why we’re here, right? Because they hurt all of us.”

“Yeah. A lot of bad things.”

Pearl curled her fingers together in her lap. She suddenly wished there wasn’t so much distance between them, but was still too hesitant to move closer. “The thing is, I really liked you. In the Nursery…you were my first time.”

Angel let out a withering sigh. “I know.”

“Well, it was good. I was lucky I had you, Angel. You were one of the good ones, really. I liked you. I felt like somehow you could _see_ me. And when you came back again and again, I always knew I was safe with you. It wasn’t always that way with others. But with you, it was okay. It was nice. Does that make sense?”

Angel just looked at her with eyes brimming with regret.

“You were one of the good things that came out of that wretched place. I just don’t want to have to keep thinking about it every time I see you. And I realize that the only way to do that is to put that all behind us and start again. A new page. Here, on Earth.”

She looked incredulous at the suggestion. Her brows buckled inwards and she looked genuinely thoughtful. “Do you think we can?”

Pearl slid closer on the branch. “We can try.”

A genuine smile crept onto Angel’s face. “Yeah. I want to.”

“Friends, then.”

“Friends,” she agreed.

The evening felt much more companionable now. Temperate, calm, easy.

“You know, I never understood the merit of second chances until about now,” Angel said.

Second chances, Pearl agreed, were very important.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The rebels claimed victory over Homeworld once more. They lost a few good gems in the process—this was war, after all—but they had done the impossible again. When the rebel platoons checked in at the base, Pearl was happy to see that Angel was alive and well, albeit soot-stained and missing one of her heavy-plated pauldrons. They exchanged some celebratory, amiable words and some smiles. Pearl even initiated a congratulatory pat on the chest plate and not once did she think of the Nursery.

That night while Garnet fucked her from behind with strong, vigorous hips against her ass while Rose kissed rings around her gem, Pearl wondered what Angel was doing right about then.

 

  

* * *

 

 

“Who do you belong to?” Bismuth asked her.

“ _Nobody!_ ” Pearl crowed loud enough for every single gem gathered around to hear.

A cheer of approval burst from the surrounding gems. In the crowd, Pearl could see Angel there, too, grinning so hard that the corners of her eyes creased.

Her heart may have skipped a beat.

 

  

* * *

 

 

They planned the tactical aspects of the next attack together. Angel’s thick fists framed the map laid out on the table while Pearl paced the floor.

“We could come in from the west. The mountain will give us cover while we approach.”

Angel shook her head. “They’ll have their quartz forces stationed in the mountain side at night. They’ll have carved holes in the rock in lieu of a barracks. Unless you want to hit their quartz guard first, we need to come in from the east.”

“It will be night, though. If we’re quiet, we could sneak past them if they’re all quiescent.”

“ _If_ they’re all quiescent. I guarantee you, if even a single one is awake, they’ll sound the alarm and it will be like kicking a hornet’s nest.”

Pearl let out a chuckle. Angel was really making Earth her home. That, and she must have also been privy to the recent event where a peridot actually kicked a hornet’s nest on her patrol and ended up vaporized because of it. Poor thing was still recovering.

Earth was a strange place.

“I’ll trust you when it comes to how quartz soldiers operate,” Pearl said as she slid into the seat next to Angel. Their arms touched as she reached over and pointed out a small river running through the Homeworld encampment. “So what about this mode of entry?”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Mmph?” Angel moaned the question into Pearl’s mouth.

“Shh,” she settled into her place straddling Angel’s lap a little more firmly. “It’s tradition.”

Their plan had worked. Their combined tactics and persistence led a very successful raid on the encroaching Homeworld camp and Pearl could hardly wait to return to base to celebrate.

Well, perhaps it wasn’t just about the successful mission.

Perhaps it was many things that Pearl had wanted for a long time and simply hadn’t had an excuse to take. But here, now, still drenched on the riverbank, Pearl had her reason and her time and she wouldn’t apologize for it. She wouldn’t.

“You sure?” Angel asked. She looked worried. Surprised, too. She probably had not expected this turn of events.

“Of course,” Pearl breathed, somewhat disgruntled that her enthusiasm was not taken seriously. “Are you?”

Angel swallowed hard. She looked to be trying to determine if this was a trick, a joke, or simply the best day she’d had in a long time. “Y-yeah.”

Pearl pinned her with another kiss, emboldened by the power she had. For the first time, she had the power to say _yes_ with Angel.

She said ‘yes’ a lot that night. She said it when Angel finally grew bold enough to grab her by the hips, she said it when heavy metal and leather armor dissipated. She said ‘yes’ when Angel asked her if she wanted to ride her. Then came the flood of ‘yes’ as Pearl bounced victoriously upon that familiar cock.

Not once did she think of the Nursery. It felt nothing like the Nursery.

She thought of the battles they shared and the trust Angel had in Pearl as her commanding officer. She thought of victories, too. It felt like Earth.

Angel let Pearl lace their fingers together while she rode them both to completion, relinquishing control to her sweet little pearl. The jagged river rocks at Angel’s back must not have been too comfortable, but she didn’t complain. And when Angel came and Pearl felt the surge of heat within her, she had the power to let it fill her just enough, not too much. Just enough to get a taste of the pleasure that they had always shared together. But this time, Pearl sat up and let that cock slip out of her before it could be too much. Cum rushed out all at once, coating their thighs and Angel’s still-twitching prick.

Pearl could have let loose a battle cry if they weren’t technically still in enemy territory. The rebellion ignited in her. Never again would her body be used for geodes. Never again would she let her body be used for anything but her own will. This body was hers, and tonight she pleasured it.

They lay in the afterglow and Angel was star-struck. She couldn’t stop looking at Pearl with a glaze in her eyes. It was a look of molten affection and old desires come true.

They washed up in the river, side-by-side.

“I like getting to stay with you after,” Angel admitted.

“I like it, too.”

They walked back to base together, recounting their victory and planning what they would do when they finally won the war.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Pearl knew it was bound to happen one day.

It was bound to happen, she knew. But it was one thing to know that almost every gem she’d befriended and loved in the rebellion had been corrupted by the Diamond’s wrath, but it was another thing altogether to see them like that.

In some instances, she had become desensitized to it. Maybe she recognized this corrupted tourmaline here, or a zircon there. It stung, but there was a job to do. She would stand between Rose and Garnet, draw her spear, and get the job done. It was for the best they could do for them now, anyway.

Sometimes, however, it was unbearable.

Nothing was more unbearable than walking into the infiltrated old temple and seeing _her_ there.

“Angel!” Pearl gasped.

Pearl had not seen her since the corruption event. She could only assume that corruption had been her fate, but there was always that lingering hope that somehow, somehow, she had escaped. Seeing her there as a monstrous entity confirmed the worst. Pearl felt her heart shatter.

Angel turned on the gems in the doorway, baring rows of dagger-like teeth. Her mane bristled on her thick, beastly neck, tangled from years of living in this corrupted aguish. Not a single ounce of her gentle giant demeanor remained. The only truly recognizable thing about her was the gem at the base of her throat.

Another roar echoed in the temple ruins.

Pearl must have looked as shaken as she felt, for Garnet turned to her and offered a few stern words. “It’s not her, Pearl. We have to capture it. Remember.”

Then they were off. The fight commenced.

Everything felt sluggish. Memories flooded back. She stood there clutching her spear with buckled knees, watching as Rose and Garnet flanked Angel—the beast—and could do nothing to help.

It was Angel.

Angel didn’t deserve this.

She didn’t notice she was vulnerable until the moment she was face-to-face with the dripping teeth lining a monstrous maw. The scream from the beast almost knocked Pearl back with the sheer force. She should have reacted then. She should have stopped cradling her spear like it was her first day on Earth and used it to do something, but she couldn’t. Pearl just stared up into Angel’s contorted face and waited for those teeth to come down.

By all means, Pearl should have been devoured. Rose and Garnet called to her in panic from where they grappled with fallen architecture on the other side of the room.

Pearl couldn’t move. Beneath the shaggy mane, she could see a pair of eyes with all the colors of the rainbow looking down at her.

She waited.

Nothing happened.

The corrupted monster closed its mouth. A hot puff of air ruffled Pearl’s hair as it breathed, nostrils flaring. Maybe it was trying to smell. Pearl wasn’t entirely sure, but she did know this was the first time she’d ever seen a corrupted gem stop its attack.

Strange. Her chest clenched.

An unearthly scream erupted. Pearl looked down to see the tip of a pink sword piercing through the corrupted beast’s chest. For a moment, that image lingered before Pearl was encompassed in smoke.

The gem fell to the ground with a soft, empty clatter. Rose reached down to pick it up.

“No!” Pearl said. Her hands shook.

“Pearl?” Rose gave her a wary look. It was garnished with pity.

Pearl took a step. “No, I—I want to do it.”

Rose understood. She placed Angel’s gem in Pearl’s palms. “Alright. I know she meant a lot to you.”

“Yes,” she said. This was the first time she’d seen Angel’s entire gem, and she did her best to memorize it. All the colors, all the facets. She checked it for scratches and found none. Good. She checked it again for good measure and tried not to notice Rose and Garnet both staring at her. They knew she was procrastinating. Finally, she could delay no longer. “Goodbye,” she said.

Her soft-hued bubble encompassed the gem and with raised arms, she set it into the aether.

 


	6. A Long Way From Loneliness

It wasn’t entirely clear when owning a pearl became vogue on Homeworld. Likely it started with a noble or two that took a pearl under her wing for menial administrative purpose and later decided that it was fashionable to dress that pearl up in fancy silks to parade her around in court. Soon, others caught onto the idea and it became a trend, a symbol of opulence, but it wasn’t seen as a necessity until the 50,000 cycle celebration when the most prestigious of White Diamond’s court gathered together to gift her a pearl all her own.

It was the event of the millennium. Homeworld buzzed about it for years to come, re-hashing the moment the gilded oyster shell opened to reveal the pearl nestled inside again and again and again until anyone with any sense between her ears grew tired of hearing about it.

_It opened and there she was. I saw it myself. I’ve never seen such a perfect little pearl._

_I heard that she had never even opened her eyes before that moment. Can you imagine? Opening your eyes for the very first time and having White Diamond right there in front of you?_

_And the way White Diamond actually smiled?_

_How do you think they managed to make her so that she could speak? I’ve never seen a pearl do that before._

_My agate’s batchmate was one of the gems on the court who pitched in to design the pearl. They say she was made with exactly 50,000 layers of calcium carbonate._ Exactly _. Said she took ten cycles to make._

_I wonder how much she cost!_

_Who knows? I bet you couldn’t even put a price on that._

From that moment on, White Diamond’s pearl sat beside her at every event, gathering, and function. She was a quiet little wraith that clung to White’s side and walked in her shadow. Even when the Diamonds met alone in private, she was there. Yellow found herself skeptical of the interloper, uncomfortable being candid in front of her. Blue, on the other hand, found her charming. She would often reach down and fuss over the pearl when White was attending to other matters and, on a few occasions, she even coaxed the pearl into the palm of her hand. Her melancholy eyes grew warm when she gazed upon her. It was no surprise, then, that Blue sought to commission a pearl of her own soon after.

Blue talked about it for months. She went on and on about how exciting it was to finally have a pearl of her own and gasped aloud whenever she received updates from the Nursery’s production team.

“Look, Yellow.” With a wave of her hand, Blue swiveled her communication screen in Yellow’s direction. “Look at how far they’ve come with her. They say she’s going to be done soon.”

Yellow squinted at the image of a partially-completed pearl gem bathing in some sort of liquid. “It looks exactly the same as it did yesterday,” she stated.

“The coats are so perfect, so even,” Blue continued to marvel. “Just look at how perfect she’s going to be.”

“Mhmm,” Yellow said.

The arrival of Blue’s finished pearl into her court was the second most talked about event of the millennium. Everyone on Homeworld and beyond stopped everything they were doing and turned their eyes upon Blue Diamond’s temple as the gleaming oyster shell was presented. Blue all but lost her composure as she peeked inside and saw the pearl waiting there for her. She gasped and scooped that bleary-eyed pearl right up to her chest and swore to never let her go.

It was unbecoming of a Diamond to have such a visceral reaction to something so paltry, in Yellow’s opinion. Then again, it seemed Yellow’s opinion was far outweighed at this point. Two diamonds sat with pearls resting on their knees and they both looked to Yellow expectantly.

Yellow did not particularly think that a pearl was a necessity. After all, she had ruled this long perfectly fine without one. Pearl ownership was nothing but a fad that would soon go out of style, she insisted, and yet whenever she brought that up, White scowled and Blue hugged her pearl just a little closer in protest to the mere idea that their companions would become obsolete.

And so that was how Yellow found herself at the Nursery. Blue accompanied her, thrilled to be a part of the pearl creation process once more.

“What shall you ask for in your pearl?” Blue inquired.

“She should be practical,” Yellow said. “She should have a purpose to me besides just standing there.” She said this, completely aware of the fact that Blue’s pearl trailed along behind them, hands folded in front of her. Silent. Useless.

“Well, that shouldn’t be hard. Pearls love to please. She will do anything you tell her to do. That’s what’s so wonderful about them!” Blue said. “And they are so darling.”

Yellow pursed her lips and did not say anything else.

Waste of time.

Diamonds should not be swayed by the hobbies of their subjects.

A liability at best.

And yet…

And yet something felt very different in Yellow’s chest when she looked down at the oyster shell presented to her cathedra. Maybe it was because she knew the eyes of Homeworld were on her, maybe it was White and Blue rubbing off on her, maybe it was a fatal miscalculation, but she could have sworn that when the shell opened to reveal a thin little pearl resting amidst a cloud of chiffon, her breath caught in her throat.

Surely it was her imagination.

Pearl lay there with her arms over her head and her legs curled to one side. She was quiescent. And then the sliver of light from the temple core fell across her face and Pearl’s eyes fluttered open. A noise escaped her throat; it was the smallest peep Yellow had ever heard.

No, something felt very different. It was like something crumpled inside her gut. Yellow was not sure what happened, but she refused to let it get the better of her. Not now, not when everyone was watching. She set her neutral expression in stone as she watched her pearl wake for the first time.

Limber arms stretched and legs unfurled. She yawned. And then a pair of golden eyes turned upon her with inexplicable knowing and recognition. “My Diamond?” she said. Her voice was reedy and frail.

Until this point, Yellow had not moved. It occurred to her that she ought to do something now. Something, anything.

Yellow reached down and extended a finger towards her pearl. Strangely enough, it felt natural to her. As if they had done this a hundred thousand times before, Pearl grasped her forefinger and pulled herself up and out of the shell. Then, still clinging onto Yellow’s finger like it was a lifeline, she allowed herself to be led up the steps of the cathedra until she stood at her Diamond’s side.

The roar of the audience was deafening, and yet Yellow heard none of it. She just stared at her pearl and tried to understand the tightness that she felt inside.

Pearl hadn’t let go of her finger yet. Yellow did not want her to, either.

Perhaps this feeling would go away once the crowds had filtered from her temple, she thought. It was all likely a symptom of the publicity of the whole event and everything would go back to normal once she had slipped away from the public eye and retreated to her private chambers. Yet, when she did, her little yellow pearl followed. And she was not alone.

“What are you supposed to do?” Yellow asked, her tone far more accusatory than she intended.

Pearl just stared up at her, eyes wide and fingers knotting in anticipation. “Whatever you would like me to do, My Diamond.”

She should have expected that answer. It was the answer every gem on Homeworld would have given her.

And yet, Pearl was distinctly unlike any other gem on Homeworld. Somehow. Yellow Diamond wasn’t quite sure how to put her finger on it. It wasn’t as though there weren’t other gems under her command—she held a hefty third of Homeworld under her authority. This pearl, however, was more than that. This pearl was _hers_.

Pearl settled in next to her as Yellow took her seat at her command center.

Pearl followed her as she moved throughout her temple.

Pearl rushed forward to open doors for her Diamond, her little legs a flurry of _bourr_ _é_ _e_.

Pearl sang to her as an offering with a strident, confident tone.

Pearl looked up at her for approval.

Inexplicably, Yellow Diamond found herself giving in. A rare smile slipped past her lips when they were alone. She noticed how it made Pearl beam and clutch her hands to her chest and so it made her want to do it more. It was what prompted her to reach down and allow Pearl to clamber up into the palm of her hand much like Blue would often do with her pearl. For the first time, it made sense.

 

* * *

 

The next time the Diamonds met alone, Blue was quick to rush over to Yellow’s pearl to inspect her. She trilled about how perfect and lovely she was, how finely the artisans had crafted her face, her regal demeanor, and her coiffed hair. She was the perfect counterpart to her Diamond, Blue said. And then with a gentle nudge of a finger, Blue sent Yellow’s pearl off to the corner to mingle with the other pearls.

Out of the corner of her eye, Yellow watched the pearls huddle together like a bevy of doves. They murmured to each other with hands cupped over their mouths to hide their words. The occasional titter and giggle echoed in the chamber and, once, Yellow could have sworn she saw her pearl blush heavily at something one of the others whispered to her. Her initial urge was to storm over and scoop her pearl up and away from whatever had scandalized her so, but she forced that urge right back down. It was silly. Her pearl would be fine. She was in the company of her own kind—what could they possibly say or do to cause any mischief?

 

* * *

 

The first time Pearl tried to kiss her, Yellow was at the bridge of her capital ship watching one of her colony’s many lunar eclipses. She felt a weight on her thigh as Pearl climbed onto her lap, then a hand at the corner of her mouth. It was only sheer reflex that made her glance down to see Pearl leaning close to her lips, far closer than ever before.

“What are you doing?” Yellow said.

As if caught doing something naughty, Pearl recoiled. “My Diamond!” she said.

“That isn’t an answer.” Looking back, Yellow would regret using the hardened, callous tone that she typically spared on the likes of prisoners and disobedient off-colored gems. It was too harsh. She knew it the moment Pearl flinched, and yet her pride prevented her from doing anything to soothe the burn of it.

Pearl retreated to her station.

By the time Yellow looked back to the sky, the eclipse was over.

Yellow was tempted to bring this strange behavior to the attention of her sister diamonds the next time they held audience with each other on Homeworld, to ask them if their pearls had ever tried to engage in more _physical_ interactions with them. Perhaps it was a remnant of their original purpose as geode-bearing gems that had not been ironed out and caused them to act irrationally, or perhaps it was only her pearl that was flawed. But, when she sat down to the meeting and White began to discuss topics of far more importance concerning the new prospective colony gorged with rare mineral deposits, she soon forgot.

The three pearls kibitzed away in the corner all the while.

Later that day when Yellow retired to her temple, Pearl followed behind at an unusually close proximity. She could sense the pitter-patter of her feet on the marble floors tailing along with an anxious air.

As with most things irrational and emotional, Yellow decided to ignore it as long as possible.

Pearl piped up once the doors closed behind them. “Do I make you happy, My Diamond?” she asked.

“Yes, of course. What a silly question.”

She thought that was going to be the end of the discussion because, well, what more was there to say? Pearl was special and having Pearl here made Yellow content in a way that was difficult to describe. She might even call it ‘happy’ if such a word could be used to describe a Diamond.

But Pearl spoke up again. “Then why don’t you ask me to, you know, touch you?” She hurried to add, “My Diamond?”

Such a bold inquiry from such a waifish little gem. A solar flare of cosmic proportions set the gold of Yellow Diamond’s irises alight as she regarded Pearl for the horrible pause that followed. The intensity of the moment was electric and it buzzed in the silence between every syllable as Yellow said, “Where in the galaxy did you get that idea?”

“The other pearls, My Diamond. They said that—”

Yellow talked over her. “The other pearls? Which other pearls?” She knew exactly which other pearls she referred to, and it made her irate before she had even been given a proper answer.

“White Diamond and Blue Diamond’s pearls, of course,” her pearl said. “They told me—”

“And what did they tell you?”

Pearl lowered her head and twisted her fingers together. “They told me I should, My Diamond. That if I was any good, I would have been able to please you already. They described it in detail. I should start with a kiss when we were alone, and lull you away from the stress of your leadership by—”

Yellow had heard enough. Her nose wrinkled with displeasure at the mere prospect of where this asinine, invasive train of thought was going and she cut her pearl off once more. “This has to be some kind of joke.” A wrathful fist slammed down upon her cathedra as she called her communication system to her side. The air crackled with static.  Atmospheric particles were torn asunder with a high whine to make way for the signal sent to her sister Diamonds so that they could explain exactly what this was all about. Yet, when Yellow finally got both White and Blue on the line and demanded answers from them, their expressions were too ashen for comfort.

White offered nothing but vague deflection. “It’s just how pearls are, you know. They’re very clingy, very needy. Can you blame her for wanting to service a Diamond? I’d be more worried if she didn’t.”

Blue, on the other hand, remained tellingly silent, her culpable eyes downturned to examine each of her fingernails far too meticulously.

It wasn’t until half a cycle later when they met on the surface of one of Yellow’s fresh colonies that she finally opened up to her. “It’s harmless,” Blue told her as they walked along a canyon’s outer breach, far from the earshot of their respective courts. “Don’t you think? A station of authority is a lonely one. What harm does it do to have a pearl whisk you away with her caress? Is it any different than the lullaby she sings to calm your nerves?”

“My pearl does not sing me lullabies,” Yellow asserted.

“She certainly must sing to you sometimes.”

Yellow shook her head and changed the subject. “If any of my subjects acted so lecherously, I would have them shattered. As would you.”

“But we are not our subjects,” Blue reminded. She folded her hands into her sleeves and gazed upon the stars scattered across the evening sky of this virgin planet. Finally, she said, “You should let her tend to you. If not for your own sake, then for hers. Pearls do love to please.”

That was the last they ever spoke on the matter, yet the conversation stuck with Yellow long afterwards. She thought about it when she and Pearl were alone together on the bridge of her ship the following evening and the silence between them overstayed its welcome. She thought about it the next time she and her sisters held council together and she watched Pearl trudge toward the others with head hung and eyes downcast. She thought about it every time she caught Pearl staring at her out of the corner of her eye.  

Yellow began to muse upon notions she would never admit to anyone, even herself. Was a Diamond supposed to lust? Previously, Yellow would have vehemently denied the very idea, and yet knowing that both of her sisters relinquished to their desires made it impossible to ignore. That went without even considering her own forbidden proclivities. For so long, Yellow had assumed there was something wrong with her, that there was some flaw in her construction overlooked during her creation. Now she knew it wasn’t true. She was just like her sisters after all.

What was a Diamond to do?

She already knew that answer.

 

* * *

 

“But My Diamond!” The agate general pleaded. She had to run to keep up with Yellow Diamond’s long strides. “With all due respect, my most lustrous, most visionary Diamond, you cannot leave Homeworld without your court! Without even your citrine guard? Your sapphires? Me?”

The scent of ozone and fuel wafted through the docking bay as Yellow mounted the gangplank to her capital ship. Her court clambered to keep up, flocking onto the docks in droves. Pearl was the only gem allowed near, and she clung to her Diamond’s coattails with white knuckled hands, desperate to keep from falling behind.

“I very well can leave Homeworld without you,” Yellow Diamond said, sounding bored with the fuss already. “Watch me.”

“What about your engineers? Your pilots? Your pilot reserves? Your reserves of the pilot reserves?”

“I do not require any of them.”

The agate general fell to her knees at the end of the gangplank, beseeching hands clasped to her chest. “But what if something _happens_ , My Diamond?”

Yellow Diamond turned to look back at the frantic rabble with a frown. “Then I will handle it,” she said. And, with that, the doors shut to seal them away from the gangplank.

Alone together. It was common for them to be alone in a room together, of course, but there were always attendants and guards waiting right outside or hovering close. Even on her ship, there was always a bustle of other gems tasked with protecting and serving Yellow Diamond. But now, here in this empty vessel, it felt so separate from the rest of Homeworld. They hadn’t even embarked yet. Pearl gripped the seams of her gem and looked up at her Diamond with lips parted and eyes wide. In her expression was the question: what now?

As always, her Diamond served as her rock, her temple. She simply beckoned her along to the bridge with a wave of her hand and that warm tone filled with soothing confidence. “Come, Pearl.”

All fear melted away with those two words. Pearl followed.

At the bridge, Pearl sat close as Yellow Diamond set a course for anywhere but Homeworld and let the stars light the way. The core engine hummed beneath them as the galaxy flew by in a matter of seconds. Lovely how the universe melted into nothing but streaks of blue, green, and yellow against the window as they hurtled through space.

So many of these stars and solar systems belonged to her Diamond, too. If not now, then one day. Yellow Diamond would conquer it all and Pearl would be right here by her side. She couldn’t wait to see it all. Her Diamond was surely the most efficient, most ruthless, most imposing, and it made her feel unequivocally safe to know that it was to her that she belonged.

For the first time since that morning, Pearl spoke. “My Diamond?” she asked. “Where are we going?”

She watched Yellow Diamond’s gaze shift from the stars. She saw the dark mass of her pupils growing wider as she looked down upon her, open, inviting. And then the whistling rush of wind as Yellow Diamond reached down to extend her hand, palm-up. Expectant. “Come here, Pearl.”

With enthusiastic obedience, Pearl clambered into her palm and held on tight as she had done so many times before. The ruffles of her sleeves billowed as she was lifted to come face to face with her Diamond. Up here, she could enjoy all those minute details of her face that she never really could from the ground. The shape of her eyelashes and the creases of her lips. Not many other gems knew that there were streaks of red somewhere hidden in the hue of Yellow Diamond’s eyes, but Pearl knew. She knew and she studied them, possibly because they looked so much like her own—she was made for Yellow Diamond, after all. Oh, she had found a thousand ways to become lost in that gaze. Pearl sometimes liked to count the freckles in her irises because they were beautiful and they reminded her of a solar system spattered with asteroids. Sometimes she just liked to watch them flicker back and forth as her Diamond skimmed through hefty log reports in seconds. Sometimes, in just the right lighting, Pearl could see her reflection in them.

Out of nowhere, Yellow Diamond asked, “Would you like to kiss me, Pearl?”

Pearl nearly leapt right out of her Diamond’s palm with excitement. Did she even hear correctly? Was her mind playing tricks on her? Without waiting for clarification, Pearl blurted her answer. “More than anything!”

As Yellow Diamond closed her eyes, Pearl could feel the fluttering of her heart trying to escape her chest.

Yes.

Finally.

Finally, her Diamond accepted her. Just like White Diamond and Blue Diamond’s pearls said she would. If she was good, if she was worthy, her Diamond would let her do this. Kiss her, touch her, feel her…

Pearl braced herself against her Diamond’s cheek with both hands. Her skin felt supple, yet impenetrable, like soft leather laid over polished marble. A statue come to life. Perfection. From the tuck of the corner of her lips to the dimple at her cheek, every form was created with a sense of ideal beauty. Laugh lines that no one else would ever see bracketed her mouth. Her laugh lines were different than her frown lines, of course. Anyone in her court knew that Yellow Diamond had frown lines, but very few knew that she had laugh lines that only popped when she smiled and they were different and distinct. Pearl ghosted a hand across the plump pout of her Diamond’s lower lips—because she needed an entire hand to span the width of it—and tried to decide where she would place her first kiss. There was so much she wanted to kiss, but this was going to be her _first_ kiss. It was special. And so, with exhilaration, Pearl leaned down and kissed the crest of her Diamond’s cupid’s bow.

In retrospect, it likely didn’t feel like much of anything to Yellow Diamond—it could have been nothing but a speck of stardust falling across her face and it would have felt about the same. Yet the gesture itself made the corner of Yellow Diamond’s lips twitch upwards into one of those all-too-rare smiles. Those laugh lines creased and that was how Pearl knew it was good.

 “Did you like that, My Diamond?” Pearl asked.

“Very much,” she said. The tenor in her voice shook the room.

“May I do it again?”

“Whatever you would like.”

And so Pearl kissed her once more, then again, and again, like the pitter-patter of slow, indolent raindrops upon her Diamond’s face, like Pearl was trying to make up for all the times she had never been allowed to kiss her. Over her mouth, the dimples of her cheeks, the tip of her nose, the space between her brows, her eyelids.

When her Diamond tried to kiss back, her lips all but enveloped half of Pearl’s face. Pearl simply tittered and embraced her even more firmly in response, despite Yellow Diamond’s muttering about size differences and inconvenience.

“Do I make you happy, My Diamond?” Pearl asked. She had to know, she had to be sure.

In a rare moment of warmth, she answered, “Of course you do.”

Right then, Pearl felt her heart fill to the brim. It filled, it burst, it overflowed.

Then her Diamond gathered her into her arms and pressed her close to that thrumming, formidable gem embedded in her chest and Pearl all but melted.

 

* * *

 

Yellow Diamond tasted like copper and sun-kissed terra. Pearl journeyed boldly into the furnace-like space between her thighs, unafraid of the heat waiting there. Plump labia welcomed her and she gave them a gentle tug between her fingers before nudging them aside. She kissed them up and down to taste them again, wanting to memorize the way her Diamond captured every single one of her senses.

Truly, the heart of the kiln lay beyond. Sappy with pouncing waves of humid heat washing over Pearl every time her Diamond twitched or breathed. Fearless, she leaned into the flames and found what she was looking for. She rubbed her palm against that swollen clit, rolled it in a circle. Her Diamond jerked her hips in reflex and it disappeared beyond the folds once more. A curse rumbled from above. Pearl had to seek out her prize and, this time, she gingerly pulled the hood back with her thumb so she would not lose it again.

More curses, more moans as Pearl tended to her Diamond in ways she had only been able to day dream about before.

Her cries echoed deep into every chamber of the ship, reverberating without end until Pearl genuinely feared that the ship would come apart at the seams.

She had never heard a Diamond come before. It was roaring, impossibly intense. It was what Pearl imagined the end of the Universe might feel like. Or maybe the beginning.

 

* * *

 

She squirmed against her Diamond’s tongue, riding out the last few pulses of her dozenth orgasm. “Mercy!” she breathed. “Oh, My Diamond, I don’t think I can do another.”

Yellow Diamond pulled away, licked her lips. She cupped Pearl there in her palm and regarded her with shining eyes. “You did well. Did you like that, Pearl?”

“Yes. My stars, yes.” Ever theatrical, Pearl flung her hand over her forehead and arched her back. The pout of her vulva was sure to attract her Diamond’s eye to show her just how satiated she was. Her thighs were damp, her mons was pink. Even the tiny bud of her clit made an appearance betwixt her well-spread labia. She hoped her Diamond liked it. She hoped the low sound that vibrated through the room was a hum of approval.

“Are you finished, Pearl?”

“Maybe,” she peeked between her fingers. A smirk snuck onto her lips. “Unless you want to feel me from the inside.”

 

* * *

 

The first attempt didn’t work. It was too big.

“I can take it,” Pearl whined between gritted teeth. “I was _made_ for you.”

Needless to say, Yellow Diamond did not persist in that venture much longer.

Pearl still complained. She stomped her foot and crossed her arms and made a very impassioned speech about how she was _supposed_ to be able to handle a Diamond inside her. She was a pearl, after all. It may hurt the first time, but the other pearls had told her to expect that. It was normal to feel a little pain. Shouldn’t they at least try again?

Her Diamond did not answer.

Blinking away tears, Pearl stared out the window and yelled her protest to the stars instead. It wasn’t fair. How was it that the other pearls were able to take their Diamonds inside of them, and she could not? Of course, it went without saying that Yellow Diamond was clearly the most virile and impressive of all the diamonds—that was a given—but Pearl should have been able to please her fully, completely.

She was so caught up in her tantrum that she did not notice Yellow Diamond drift up behind her until the reflection of her silhouette engulfed the entire window. Yet something felt strange. Something. Like reality’s framework had shifted. Pearl was not sure what it was until her Diamond set a hand on her shoulder and turned her around.

Yellow Diamond had changed. Her majesty and fearsome magnitude was just as intoxicating as ever, but her dimensions were somewhat smaller. Shorter. Closer. She had the towering height of a robust quartz gem. Still impressively tall, but not a _Diamond’s_ height.

Pearl had no words. A hand went to her mouth.

“Let’s try this,” her Diamond said. She took her hand— _her hand! Their hands fit together!_ —and lead her back towards the captain’s chair.

The second attempt worked much better.

 

* * *

 

Pearl trotted into court beside Yellow Diamond, ruffles and ribbons flowing behind her. She wore a smirk on her face that curved all the way up to her cheeks as she rushed over to where the other two pearls waited to greet her. Pride puffed from her chest, her ego radiating with enough pomp to match the voluminous outfit she wore to hide her secret.

But what was a secret if she couldn’t brag about it?

The other pearls gasped in awe as she pushed aside the fabric to reveal her rounded, full belly, warm with incubating life. Their hands went to their mouths to hide their squeals of delight—and jealousy.

Smug, Pearl offered to let them touch it. They did so readily and murmured their approval of how fruitful, how big it was. What would it be? How does it feel? If they were good enough, perhaps their Diamonds would give them one, too.

From across the hall, Pearl met Yellow Diamond’s approving gaze. It filled her with a sense of security and satisfaction.

What she did not notice were the skeptical expressions on the other Diamonds’ faces. They looked at each other, looked at Yellow, and shook their heads.

“We’re next,” Blue Diamond murmured.

White Diamond’s visage perhaps went a little whiter.

 


	7. A Long Way From Indifference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commissioned by Bri! More details on my Tumblr. 
> 
> Intended to be read after CH 19 of A Long Way From Home.

“Pearl?”

Yellow Pearl’s eyes snapped open at the sound of her Diamond calling to her. She straightened up in her seat, muscle memory carrying her hands to attention at the work screen in front of her where they ought to have been to begin with. Culpable, Pearl looked up at her Diamond and hoped she wouldn’t find anger there waiting for her.

There was no anger, per se. Just concern. They were alone, after all, and Yellow Diamond tended to be less strict with her when they were alone.

“Is everything alright?” she asked. The frown lines that framed her mouth began to pop. “This is the third time today.”

It was actually somewhere around the fifth or sixth time Pearl had drifted off at her work station at her Diamond’s side, but she had caught herself before she was noticed. It had been like this the day before. And the day before that. Today, however, was the worst so far. Pearl felt drained of energy, inexplicably sapped. The heat of the warm geode incubating inside of her cast a lulling aura that was so easy to get caught up in. “My Diamond,” she said. “I apologize. I am trying my hardest.”

Thankfully, Yellow Diamond did not argue that point. She simply took up the mantle of control, as she always did. “You’ve been like this since you started incubating,” she said. “Something must be wrong. Pearl, contact the Nursery for me. Put me on the line with Coral Agate. I’ll see that I get some answers.”

_Something must be wrong._

At those words, Pearl shrunk into herself. Familiar, cold dread draped over her shoulders like a cloak. What if she had been made incorrectly after all? After only a week of peace, Pearl’s greatest fear swooped back into her with a vengeance. Yet she did as she was told. Her fingers worked mechanically to reach out to the head agate at the Nursery.

The gem who answered the call was a pearl with skin the color of alabaster and hair like lace. Her voice was soft. “My luminous Yellow Diamond. You have reached the Nursery’s headquarters. How may I have the pleasure of serving you today?”

As usual, it was Pearl’s task to navigate their call to the gem of Yellow Diamond’s interest so that she did not have to waste her time talking to other pearls and all manner of underlings. She spoke on her Diamond’s behalf with a brassy, annunciated tone. “Yellow Diamond wants to speak with Coral Agate immediately.”

Still so soft, so pleasant, the other pearl simply bowed to her order. “Right away.”

Admittedly, it felt good to have her own orders obeyed. She was Yellow Diamond’s mouthpiece, an extension of her glorious arm, a status elevated so far beyond the common gem that she may as well have been Yellow Diamond herself to many of the pearls and peridots and gypsums she spoke to. Even to higher ranking gems, she enjoyed the status of being a part of her diamond. She was untouchable. Though it often went unsaid, she, a pearl, had power and value that was preceded only by the Diamonds themselves.

How woeful it would be for her to lose all of that simply because she was made wrong.

Again, a pang of panic hit her.

Just then, another gem appeared on the screen before them. This time, Pearl recognized her distinctly as Coral Agate. She ran the Nursery operations. Every pearl was created under her close inspection, including the Diamonds’ pearls. _Especially_ the Diamonds’ pearls. She often took credit for their perfection.

Pearl wondered what would happen to her if she had come out wrong after all.

“My Diamond,” Coral said with a low, reverent bow that almost dipped her out of frame. “I am unable to fully express my gratitude for having been called upon. I await with bated breath to know how I may serve you today.”

Yellow Diamond did not waste time. “Coral, I need you to send me your most experienced and discreet handler.”

Coral finally came up from her bow. “Why, yes, my Diamond. Of course! Right away. May I ask why? I don’t mean to question you, my honored Diamond, but I simply want to prepare my handler with a briefing so that she may—”

“There is something wrong with my pearl and I want her to examine her.”

A look of creeping horror crept onto Coral’s face. The pink drained from her cheeks. “Something…wrong?” She caught herself and the stammering came to an end. “Why, yes. Right away, My Diamond.” This time when she bowed, she did plunge out of frame entirely. Only the crest of her backside remained on screen.

Yellow Diamond did not wait for her to pop back up to shut the communication window. “Well. There we go,” she said. With that, she went back to her tasks.

Somehow the anxiety managed to keep Pearl from slipping back into her daze. She fought her nerves all day.

This was it. This was when Yellow Diamond found out about some fatal flaw in her and it would be the end of this time she spent with her esteemed Diamond. Either she would be sent to the Nursery to work as an ordinary pearl, or she would be crushed and discounted as a waste of resources.

Then what of her geode?

What would the other Diamonds’ pearls think?

Not too much later, Yellow Diamond’s guards escorted a small, frazzled-looking peridot into the room. She wore white gloves, a white smock, and a pair of goggles with too many lenses crowning her head.

Yellow Diamond took one look at her and deadpanned, “I asked for a gem with discretion.”

“My Diamond, with the utmost respect, I assure you that I understand the discreet nature of your call. Humbly, I am the best the Nursery has to offer you. I will examine your pearl without question or remark.” Her hands wrung together and her head tilted down. Not once did she dare make eye contact. “Coral Agate has sent over my records for your reference.”

A small noise of acknowledgement was Yellow Diamond’s only response. Her fingers glided over her hologram screen to find the aforementioned records and, when she did, the most thoughtful look came over her face.

The records stated that this particular peridot had examined White Diamond and Blue Diamond’s pearls on numerous occasions before, some dating back decades. The record detailed a history of excellence and inconspicuousness—exactly what Yellow Diamond said she was looking for.

“Very well. Guards, you are dismissed.”

The guards bowed and left, closing the doors behind them.

That was when Yellow Diamond turned all her attention to the nervous peridot. The energy in the room shifted. She was not unkind—she rarely was outright mean to her subjects—but there was an indescribable intensity being in her mere presence, let alone being the focus of her attention.

“Now,” she said. “My pearl has been acting strangely for the last week. She continues to go quiescent while she is working. I would like for you to examine her and tell me what is wrong.”

“Of course, My Diamond.” Peridot took a step closer, as if wanting to approach, but soon thought better of it. Perhaps she didn’t want to get too close. “May I…see her?”

Pearl looked to her Diamond. She nodded.

She stepped down from her place at Yellow Diamond’s side and it felt like she was walking on two legs of gelatin. Her muscles were sluggish, yet anxiety prickled in her toes until every movement felt strange, stranger than the first steps she’d taken from her nacre womb. It felt like she wanted to collapse and run at the same time and, oh, she hoped it wasn’t too obvious as she made her way to Peridot. She came to stand in front of her and could feel Yellow Diamond’s eyes on her back. Her knees locked.

Peridot mumbled something and flipped her goggles down. The lenses adjusted on their own, clicking into place as she began her examination. “Hmm. Let’s take a look.”

Over the course of the next few minutes, Pearl was poked and prodded in far too many places. Peridot started with Pearl’s gem. Gave it a good rub and a few taps. She took some notes, hummed to herself, and moved on. Her mouth was opened to peer inside and her eyelids peeled back to study her irises. Peridot pinched at her fingers one by one and pulled at her arms until it felt like she was trying to pop them from their sockets. It all seemed very invasive and not all that productive until Peridot reached beneath the flowing gown of chiffon and bumped up against the round heat of her abdomen.

On instinct, Pearl tensed up. Whether it was because she didn’t like to be touched there or because she was afraid they’d been discovered, she wasn’t sure, nor did she have much time to contemplate. Without another second of hesitation, both of Peridot’s hands leapt straight to her belly and traced around the circumference. She almost seemed excited by what she found.

“Well, there’s your problem,” Peridot said. The glee in her voice suggested she forgot, for a moment, that she was in the presence of a Diamond. “Your pearl is incubating. Did you know that?”

Yellow Diamond’s arms crossed over her chest. “Yes. Of course I knew that.”

Peridot must have promptly remembered who she was talking to. She stuttered. “I, um…of course, My Diamond. I must have misunderstood the problem.”

Ever-patient, Yellow Diamond repeated herself. “My pearl is lethargic and keeps going quiescent at inopportune times. That is the problem.”

“I…” Peridot looked at a loss. “Forgive me, My Diamond, if I’m stating the obvious. But is it possible that your pearl could simply be acting that way because she is incubating?”

“I do not know. That is why I called on your expertise.”

A small flicker of relief crossed Peridot’s face. She stood a little straighter, spoke with more conviction. “It’s actually very common for Pearls to become slow and tired while they are incubating. Most of their energy is used for the geode, leaving them with few reserves for other tasks. In the Nursery, most of our producing pearls are quiescent at least seventy to eighty-five percent of the day, depending on what stage of incubation they are at. It is my belief that your pearl is simply experiencing a common incubation symptom.”

There was a pause. Then, at length, Yellow Diamond said, “I see.”

“Every aspect of your pearl is in exceptional condition. Perfect, even.”

“I see,” she said again. Her hand moved from her chin back down to the armrest of her cathedra. “Your analysis has been valuable, Peridot. I will submit a favorable report to Coral Agate.”

Peridot couldn’t have beamed wider. She puffed her chest out. “Thank you, My Diamond! It was a pleasure to be of service. If you call upon me again, I would be honored to answer to your summons. In fact, I would be happy to assist in your pearl’s labor if you are in need of a handler. But, of course, your judgement is divine in its wisdom.”

“Will she need a handler for her labor?”

“Erm, yes, My Diamond. It is best. I can make it less painful for her if you wish it, My Diamond.” The look on Peridot’s face was confused, as if she could not believe her Diamond was asking these most basic of questions.

“I will be sure to call upon you when the time comes and if you prove yourself to be discreet.”

“Of course, My Diamond. Always.”

“You are dismissed.” And with that, Yellow Diamond waved her hand and cordially saw the meeting to an end.

Pearl didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until the doors closed and they were alone again. Reassurance rushed in all at once as she realized that, once again, she had been confirmed as a normal, effective pearl. Perfect, even. The handler had called her _perfect_.

Chiffon rustling behind her, she hurried back to her Diamond’s side as quickly as her incubating little body could carry her. She was always happiest there; it was where she belonged.

Before she could get comfortable, Yellow Diamond extended down a hand. Her work screens were pushed off to the side, abandoned. Every ounce of her attention had shifted to her pearl. Her gaze was gentle. A rare break in the armor she kept between herself and most other gems revealed an interior warmth and a reticence that Pearl read as regret. Or maybe it was an apology. Either way, it was uncomfortable, for Pearl was not used to this strange departure from infallibility. An apology meant that someone had done something wrong. Certainly her _Diamond_ had not done anything wrong and she should never have to apologize for anything, let alone apologize to her silly little pearl—

“You have not been quiescent seventy to eighty percent of the day since you’ve been incubating,” Yellow Diamond said. There was nothing accusatory about her words. If anything, it was concern.  “Clearly you are not getting enough rest. Come here.”

In shock, Pearl didn’t move at first. This had never happened before. It was unheard of. It made no sense.

“Come on,” Yellow Diamond curled her fingers to beckon her.

This time, Pearl clambered up into her Diamond’s palm and held on tight. Wind whistled past her head as she was scooped up high into the air until she was level with the gem embedded in her Diamond’s chest. She leaned into it, feeling the fine craft of the facets against her palms. It bathed her in golden reflected light as she was swept away.

“All urgent matters will be forwarded to my chambers,” Yellow Diamond told the guards in passing. “Urgent matters _only_. Everything else, I will deal with as I see fit.”

The guards looked at each other in confusion.

The halls of Yellow Diamond’s temple seemed impossibly vast when Pearl had to trek them on her own. But here, carried by her Diamond, it seemed like only a few short paces brought them to the private chambers on the far end of the building.

A low, functional lounge commanded the center of the room. Yellow Diamond had rejected all of the designers’ and architects’ attempts to make it look plush and adorned, opting only for clean lines and functionality. Somehow, it made the lounge look even more striking with its prominence. The designers managed to slip fine silk draperies and pillows with golden accents here and there, which denoted opulence without garishness. In essence, Pearl thought it suited her Diamond perfectly.

Soon, Pearl was lowered onto one of the pillows, right in the center of one of the larger ones where the divot served as a nest. She sighed as she sank into fine fabric, the weight of her geode cushioned as she rolled onto her side. For the first time, Pearl noticed how much her body had been straining to hold herself upright. Shameless in her exhaustion, she sighed and let her head drop. She gave in.

Her Diamond was so very kind. So giving. So attentive.

How lucky she was to have her.

How perfect, how beautiful, how dedicated—

The pillow shifted. A chorus of springs whispered beneath her. When she looked up, she saw that her Diamond had joined her on the lounge. She sat with both feet propped up and her arm draped over the backing in a casual, resigned silhouette so that Pearl was tucked up right at her side. She arranged her work station around her once more.

Was she going to stay here? The idea was nice, but it didn’t make much sense.

From her pampered little nest, Pearl piped up. “You do not have to stay with me, My Diamond. I know you are busy.”

“I’d rather stay here,” Yellow Diamond said. She adjusted the last screen so that it was at a comfortable reading height. “I don’t want to let you out of my sight.”

“I promise I won’t get into trouble,” Pearl protested. Her Diamond did not need to change her schedule and events on account of her pearl. It just wasn’t right. It was selfish for her to even think such a thing. Unfathomable, even.

Yellow Diamond did not smile. She did not frown. “You don’t understand,” she said. She turned to look down at Pearl and, for a moment, it was terrifying because her eyes burned with golden radiance. It was familiar, though. It was familiar because Pearl had seen that look before when they had first kissed and again when they had joined. She recognized it again now when Yellow Diamond pressed her lips together as if to silence herself. Restrain herself. Finally, she spoke again. “I don’t want to let you out of my sight,” she said.

The words seemed so simple, the desire so trite. _I don’t want to let you out of my sight_. Those words had been said a hundred million times before by a hundred million gems, yet never had those words ever meant so much.

Pearl couldn’t explain it. She didn’t need to; she felt it. And so she dropped her head back down to the pillow and slowly, slowly let her eyes close upon the last image of her Diamond’s regal figure beside her. Her protector, her provider, the sire of the geode warm inside her belly. Everything.

 

* * *

 

 

The next time she opened her eyes, it was because she felt a finger tracing along the curve of her back. It stroked one, twice, and again. She saw her Diamond sorting through files on her communicator with one hand. The other was tucked close to Pearl, caressing her at an idle pace.

Pearl made a soft sound and stirred.

“Shh,” Yellow Diamond said. “Rest.”

Who was Pearl to argue? She nudged into the shelter of her Diamond’s hand and dipped back into quiescence.

 

* * *

 

 

A gust of an exhale ruffled her hair. A pair of lips against the side of her face.

 

* * *

 

 

“You’re just perfect, aren’t you? If you only knew how perfect…”

 

* * *

 

 

Yellow Diamond’s face, eyes closed, not far from her own. She lay quiescent beside Pearl.

Pearl felt a tug in her chest. A pulling. A bond.

She reached out and pressed her hand to her Diamond’s cheek, sighed, and curled tighter around their geode.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Long Way (Podfic)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6922126) by [Tat_Tat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tat_Tat/pseuds/Tat_Tat)




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